Flight of the SeekerBee
by Deathcomes4u
Summary: G1- 'The Cure' fic spin-off. Bee has been hiding a whopper of a secret, until an old flame's intervention means he must reveal his true self to his lovers. Concept by Lioness007- BeexProwlxJazzxTwins, smut and drama and more smut, enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

_This story is a spinoff of 'The Cure' 'verse, in which Bumblebee is involved with both Prowl and Jazz and the Twins. For my Cure readers interest, events within this spinoff are self-contained and do not pertain to what may happen in the future plot of that story, this stand alone is an expansion of a theory/bunny devised by _~Lioness007 _known also as _~Weeping-cheetah _on DA. She's my Cure Beta and this whole story was based off a small comic by her, here: _http :// weeping-cheetah. deviantart. com/art /Rough-tf-comic-146285527 (spaces take out obviously)

_So i'm not sure if this will stand as a one shot or if i will also write another little bit that is sitting as a brain bunny in my head. If i get time and drive, we shall see. For now, i love this. And much love for Kaitie, this is to cheer you up ^.^_

_Hope others enjoy this also, **the Seeker!Bee concept is Kaitie's brainchild, not mine!**I just love it to bits and run with it. Also i've been toying with his design on my DA, so if you know it, go there and have a look, if you don't, then why not? Same username as here, shouldn't be too hard to find, don't be a lazy aft XD_ _If you really couldn't be bothered finding out, then i'll tell you i base Bumblebee's jet mode off the original Skydive toy, but the wings look like a seeker's and not how they look on SD's original root mode. That is all._

_~Death Out_

* * *

"NNNH.. AH! PRIMUS!"

Bumblebee writhed under the wonderful onslaught from the golden toughliner. In turn, Sunstreaker wasn't really the driving force behind the deliciously deep thrusts… no, that would be Prowl, who was sandwiching the lambo between himself and the minibot, making the golden twin mewl and vent hot bursts of air across Bumblebee's back.

"Mmmmnn… Bee…" Sunstreaker began licking and nipping at his back plating, tracing seams with his glossa. Bumblebee quivered and tensed, but the reaction was extremely reigned in. Sunstreaker didn't really notice, which was just as well. The minibot had no reason to be hyper sensitive on his back armour, it wasn't a trait he shared with any other minibot grounders, but then Sunny didn't really fraternise with them, so it wasn't like he'd have anything to compare his minibot berth-mate with.

"You have such weird back-plate seam configurations… Primus I just wanna stick my servos in you and -UNGH!"

"No sticking your servos anywhere unless I say you can." Prowl half growled, half purred, thrusting forcefully while he slipped his tapered digits into Sunstreaker's hip seams.

The toughliner's engine revved in response. He and Bumblebee shared one thing in common, and that was a strange love for being dominated by Prowl.

The three were having a wonderful pre-shift bonding session and would quickly reap the rewards of their combined efforts. Jazz and Sideswipe looked like they weren't that far behind them either, the pair doing their best to out-do the threesome, and likewise from the odd assortment writhing together on the berth with heated, blissful sounds.

If there was one thing the 5 of them didn't want to hear at that moment, it was the decepticon attack alarm.

Unfortunately, it was oblivious to their activities and blared brashly away as the mechs all stalled in their motions, looking to the ceiling in disbelief or groaning and cursing in annoyance.

"Unh… come on, I can get off in five astroseconds, and then I'll answer it." Sideswipe whined somewhat breathlessly as he pressed his hips back into Jazz's slowed motions.

Prowl actually growled in regret and frustration, feeling Sunstreaker quivering on his spike as he stopped moving.

"No time, we'll have to finish this later."

"Awww, ya sure there isn't time for one _teensy _little overload?" Sideswipe pouted. Jazz had stopped moving and sighed resignedly, but had not pulled out.

"No, it will drain your energy reserves and that is dangerous going into combat." Prowl said, trying to switch into professional mode, but his vocaliser hitched slightly as he drew out of Sunstreaker while the golden Lambo clenched tightly around his spike as if trying to keep him there.

Bumblebee gave a small, almost angry noise of discontent as he leaned back onto Sunstreaker's spike. "I _hate _having to hang a charge. Frag, those 'Cons are going to slagging wish they'd stayed in their own berths today when I get out there." Sunstreaker growled ominously. Bumblebee moaned lowly as the toughliner slowly pulled out of him. The minibot's faceplates were flushed and he straightened, on his knees, optics glowing dark. "They're going to wish _I'd _never gotten out of recharge this morning when I get out there." The spy stated, tone darker than most of them were used to. The only one in the room who actually smiled at the minibot's words was Jazz.

"The sight of that is only goin' ta keep my charge on edge." He purred, pulling swiftly out of Sideswipe and landing a resounding smack on the red toughliner's aft, earning him a startled yelp and a strong growling rev of arousal from the twin.

"Come on, clean up quickly, we have to respond. I have the feeling the 'Cons won't last long, I doubt they've ever faced off 5 very frustrated and up-charged mechs at once. They will doubtfully be prepared." Prowl soothed as he threw them each a cleaning cloth from Jazz's berth side draw.

* * *

The battle was certainly fiercer than any they had had in months. But this was not due to the apparent new arrivals on the Decepticon side… in fact, much to everyone's surprise the most forceful show of aggression was not even from Megatron, but five of the autobot's forces.

Something seemed to have really ticked off both the SIC, the TIC, the toughliner twins and… seemingly enough _Bumblebee _of all mechs.

None of the autobots had a clue what had ticked the 5 of them off so thoroughly… seemingly their problem was with the Decepticons, as if they'd done them all some kind of individual personal injustice, but hey… they weren't going to complain given the small group were easily pushing the advantage over the stunned 'Cons.

Prowl and Sunstreaker ran at Soundwave, the golden toughliner snarling like a pit demon, the tactician wearing his scariest dark icy look… even the normally stoic blue cassette master seemed wary of the pair, choosing to evade rather than initiate any defensive manoeuvres.

"Is it just me or are those Autobots really _pissed_?" Rumble grumbled warily at his brother Frenzy. The other cassette shrugged. "Yea, but I don't remember doing anything to them recently-GAK!"

Rumble cried out as his brother fell, but he wasn't quick enough for the yellow blur and it jumped straight off Frenzy and onto him.

Neither of the cassettes stood a chance, Bumblebee had disrupted vital neural lines in their necks with chilling accuracy, sending them both offline. He huffed, still terse and wanting nothing more than to curl up in a berth with his close circle of lovers and share some amazing overloads before the start of his mid-cycle shifts, and these slagging 'Cons had gone and ruined it all just when they'd gotten started.

He'd endured interface related frustration for a long time, and now that he really didn't have to, he just couldn't tolerate being forced to because the enemy got bored and decided it wanted to go raiding some more human energy resources.

Soundwave contacted his leader as he ran and hid from the laser fire of the tactician and the yellow hellion.

:_Request- permission to call for aerial re-enforcements:_

The silver and crimson gun-former was currently busy trading insults with Prime and amusing himself with threatening human hostages, watching the slight and constant ebb of fear in the Prime's optics as he toyed with the thin line of the fragile organics lives.

_: Yes, Soundwave, whatever, do what is necessary for victory!: _He snapped back shortly over the comm.

The communications officer opened a channel to Starscream and requested a second wave of seekers.

Currently it was only the lead trine on the offensive. With an obvious sneer in his vocals, the air commander obliged, his tone lazy and uncaring as he strafed across the autobot's front line.

Jazz ducked and Sideswipe threw himself out of the way.

He needed to get to Sunstreaker so they could attack the seekers together, Jet judo just never worked as well solo.

Sideswipe was just itching to rip into some seeker plating. From the languid way the decepticon's lead trine were flying, the red twin would bet any credits that the horny slaggers had gotten in some decent overloads recently. Bunch of fraggers. Everyone knew seekers were, to put it in earth terms, borderline nymphomaniacs. If they didn't seem to all be total aft-heads or glitches, Sideswipe thought he'd like very much to berth one, but that was never going to happen. He could still, of course, get up close and personal, but then the pleasure would be all his and the unfortunate seeker would only get pain from the encounter.

Sideswipe smirked and scoured the battlefield with his optics, easily catching the golden gleam of his brother's plating.

_OH Primus_, he couldn't afford to watch Sunstreaker and Prowl fighting together, it just made his still burning charge throb in his spark with lust.

He growled and cast around for a nearby 'Con to relieve some pent up energy on. He caught sight of another yellow figure and couldn't help the smile that spread across his lip components.

Bumblebee was crouched near the unconscious forms of Rumble and Frenzy, still not a mark on him… actually barely a mark on the cassettes either…_damn _Sideswipe always forgot just how efficient the little spy could be when galvanised into action.

The minibot's expression seemed to match just how he felt. Frustrated and eager to get back to where they had left off, angry at any 'Con coming between him and a good 'facing.

Sideswipe shot viciously at the advancing combaticons, who backed off with apprehensive looks at his loud snarling and Jazz's dangerous expression where he backed up the red twin's shots not five metres to his left. Sideswipe pressed forward towards the minibot's position as he went.

Lazerbeak swooped on Bumblebee where he crouched, but the spy's rifle tracked the turbo hawk with deadly accuracy, hitting a wing and sending the cassette spiralling away back towards it's master… who it couldn't reach because Soundwave was still trying to take cover from Prowl and Sunstreaker's attack.

Sideswipe was just thinking how surprisingly veracious in berth the minibot was and how he probably didn't need to ever berth a seeker given the small yellow mech's apparently very healthy 'face drive.

He kinda regretted not knowing about it much sooner, all the fun they'd been missing out on! Not to mention from what Bumblebee had let slip, he'd been terribly frustrated without any partners or prospectives.

He would definitely have to try and make up for lost time with the minibot, but then he'd have to get in line with the other three, he thought with a smirk. That minibot would never be left wanting again if he had his way.

The red twin was just contemplating going over to see if Bumblebee wanted to learn how to do some Jet Judo when the sound of more jet engines rumbled across the sky.

The sound of additional seekers didn't overly bother Sideswipe as he advanced, shooting at any 'Cons in his range… but glancing back at Bumblebee, the minibot's optics had gone curiously wide and he had stiffened considerably. He looked wildly around, seemingly noticing he was right out in the open (not that it seemed to have been an issue to him a moment ago, even as the lead trine swooped low and strafed laser-fire right near his position), and then made a dash for their frontlines.

Sideswipe frowned anxiously. He knew Bumblebee was no coward, and while it wasn't unusual for him to fight from behind the front lines, the sudden alarm in his optics unnerved Sideswipe. He gave the minibot cover-fire and threw Jazz a look. The Porsche had been watching their companion as well, and knew him even better than the red twin, so it didn't make him feel any better that the saboteur looked as confused by Bumblebees behaviour as him.

The two looked up as the roaring jets got closer. They both raised their rifles and let loose a string of laser fire as first the coneheads and then another trine of seekers passed low overhead and banked to opposite sides.

The three new jets were green, gold and cobalt… a team Jazz at least recognised from Cybertron. Sideswipe thought they seemed vaguely familiar, an old memory file informing him they had something to do with acid-rain storms.

"Fraggin' rainmakers… _just _what we need." Jazz growled, training his rifle on the once tetra-jets whom had seemingly adopted the same alt. mode as their air commander now that they were on earth.

"That's it, I'm getting Sunny, it's time some fliers got grounded." Sideswipe snarled.

"Bad idea 'Sides, and I'm not sayin' that for Ratchet's sake… that yellow one emits radio-active heat, I'm talkin' melt ya down to the protoform kinda heat. Better off shootin'." Jazz said soberly.

Sideswipe scowled but joined the saboteur with his lazer fire as the new trine swept over the battlefield and back towards them once more.

_Is it just me or do they look more interested in scoping the battlefield rather than actually fighting anyone? That can__'t be good… _Jazz thought, wearing a scowl to match Sideswipe's now.

Both their faces fell into shock however as the jet trio suddenly swerved mid flight and headed straight for them.

The two peppered the air with shots at the oncoming jets, and the green one got hit badly in one wing, careening out of control off to the side before changing to root mode and branching off towards Starscream's trine, trailing smoke.

The other two put on a burst of speed, and feeling his energon pump racing Jazz realised the jet's weren't actually heading for them at all.

Whoever they were heading for suddenly opened fire and cursed rather vehemently.

Jazz span around to find… _Bumblebee _to be the source of desperate rapid-fire, from both his rifle and his mouth.

And then it suddenly dawned on him that the minibot was the target and he was just standing there _gawking._

Sideswipe seemed to realise this at the same time, letting out an angry squawk before they both tore towards the yellow mech and the seekers bearing down on him.

It all happened in a flash, and yet it seemed to slow down impossibly as Jazz watched it unfold.

The yellow jet dived at Bumblebee, who was still firing, but his shots seemed to explode at a point a foot from the seeker's actual plating.

Bumblebee yelled and twisted, making to run, but the yellow seeker transformed and barely landed as he reached out and scooped up a yelling, cursing, thrashing Bumblebee as his blue companion (also transformed) ripped the rifle from Bumblebee's servos and tossed it aside.

And then just like that they were flying off and away, taking a loudly protesting Bumblebee with them.

"BEE!"

Prowl and Sunstreaker's attack on Soundwave halted abruptly at the sound of both Jazz and Sideswipe calling out desperately.

Blaster was already heading towards them, and the two decided they could leave the assault on the blue and white 'Con to the red and yellow boom-box. They sprinted after Jazz and Sideswipe, who were running perpendicular to the front-line of attack, cutting through the crossfire without a moment's hesitation.

Prowl gazed ahead of them, searching for a sign of Bumblebee… what had happened to him? Where was he? Who were they running after?

**Jazz, report, what****'s happened?**

**Prowl they took Bee! The rainmakers just swooped down and took him, I don't know what they're gonna-**

**Calm down Jazz, look ahead, they're rendezvousing with Starscream's trine, that many jets can be tracked easily, just don't lose sight of where they're going!**

* * *

Bumblebee hadn't heard his name called over the roaring of jet engines. He hated…_hated _how familiar the feel of the other jet's warm chassis pressed against his back was.

He squirmed and struggled uselessly, earning only a barely discernable snicker of amusement from somewhere over his helm for his troubles. It was very, _very _hard not to be distracted by the thrill of flying.

_I should NOT be enjoying this, I can__'t be! Not with him! I'll never forgive him, I don't care what excuses or lies or WHATEVER he gives me… what is this? What is he planning to do with me? Why are we meeting up with Starscream's trine? What, does he think he can get Screamer to force me to be with him? Wait… he knows I'm a… oh primus… no, he's not going to… is he? Oh slag, oh SLAG if he does that I… NO! Frag this to the PIT!_

Bumblebee's struggles renewed, but Sunstorm merely tightened his grip. The extraordinary heat and radiation emitting from his plating was being reigned in by the seeker, but it never would have effected his captive anyway. Bumblebee had been the only mech ever known to be immune to the effects of Sunstorm's odd radioactivity.

Which gave the egocentric seeker the idea that they were supposed to be destined, primus-ordained spark-mates. A thought Bumblebee had not always been repulsed by…

No, back when he didn't have a reason to hide who or what he was, he'd been happy to agree with Sunstorm… until the golden-yellow flier had taken it to mean he could do whatever he pleased to Bumblebee, at which point everything had gone horribly sour and Bumblebee had been forced not only to flee the megalomaniac's clutches, but change the very fundamentals of what he was in order to stay hidden and lead a semi-normal life.

But Sunstorm still knew what he was… and Bumblebee didn't have any doubt that the manipulative mech would readily reveal his secret to whoever he pleased, he may even try blackmail.

It didn't matter, the spy new that if anyone on the Ark found out, then that was it… his career was over, his friends would reject him and… he didn't even want to think what his lovers would say…

True horror and fear was starting to grip Bumblebee by the time they came in to land, but he refused to let it show. He continued to struggle even as the other seekers snickered and bound his hands behind him and forced him roughly to the ground.

"This better be good Sunstorm, I'm wasting perfectly good autobot-slagging time here." Starscream drawled, crossing his arms over his cockpit and glaring nonchalantly at Bumblebee.

"Tch, not like it makes much difference Starscream, not like you ever hit anything." Bumblebee sniped venomously. Thundercracker growled and stepped forward to deal the unflinching minibot a blow, but Sunstorm stepped in front of him with a soft chuckle.

"No touchy… only I can do that. After all, you have no idea just how important our little guest is." the sun coloured flier purred, earning a grimace of annoyance from Thundercracker, who fell back into place on Starscream's right.

"Come on, get on with it! You've already talked him up, I still can't see it. And I have a bet to win with TC here." Skywarp crowed, tapping a pede against the dry earth impatiently.

The seekers had surrounded Bumblebee, all optics gazing at him with scornful disbelief and judgement. They were in some kind of clearing, surrounded by tall pines. They were several kilometres at least from the battle-ground now. If help was coming (he was sure Jazz and Sideswipe had to have seen his plight at least) it would be at least a breem. Bumblebee didn't want to think what could happen to him here within a breem… his mind was uncharacteristically blank in the face of his biggest secret teetering on the edge of being blown wide open.

Sunstorm strode languidly around him, golden optics drinking in his form hungrily, though with a note of clear distain.

"Now now now, this look doesn't suit you at all! And yet I'm flattered you would go to the extreme like this just to avoid little old _me_, but you really should have known you couldn't hide forever! The hide-and-seek has been fun sweet-Bee, but let's drop the charade now shall we? I would so love to see those pretty wings of yours again, don't you _miss _all the things I used to do to them?" The bright seeker crooned, circling around behind him.

Bumblebee's processor suddenly seemed to kick back into action. Perhaps… if he held out, he could stave this off until help arrived, because it seemed the others seekers… while Sunstorm may have already told them, didn't seem to believe him. He would play on that as long as possible.

"I don't know what the _frag _you're talking about." Bumblebee growled over his shoulder, and to his credit he sounded genuinely confused… but pit he wasn't one of the Ark's best spies for nothing. He and Mirage often practiced their falsifying techniques with one another, and only Jazz could ever outmatch them at it.

Sunstorm merely chuckled darkly and Bumblebee felt the heat of his plating as the larger mech knelt behind him, wrapping an arm around him, servo reaching to caress his faceplates while Sunstorm's cranial vent settled on the other side of his helm. Bumblebee jerked roughly and tried to bite the servo that ghosted fingertips over his faceplate.

The soft caress quickly turned into a sharp, steely grip, and Bumblebee found his helm pressed hard between Sunstorm's hand and neck-cables, the jet ex-venting sharp hot bursts of air across his back.

"Nice try my little-stinger, but I told them your secret… Aw, Don't be like that…" the seeker was being melodramatic in his tone, but for Sunstorm this was normal. Bumblebee was scowling and putting on his best 'utterly confused' look in a vain attempt to keep the other seekers questioning Sunstorm's credibility.

"They just want a little look. You're such a cute novelty and such a well-kept secret." the yellow flier snickered, releasing Bumblebee suddenly and rising, flicking his wings back imperiously in a stance that clearly stated to any other seeker that Bumblebee was HIS.

The spy glanced at Starscream and his trine, who were all in front of him, watching with curious but still dubious optics.

If Sunstorm were not being so very possessive of the auto-brat minibot, they might pass this off as a prank… but the egomaniacal flier was not known for fairly _pawing _a grounder like he was a prized pet, so the others remained silent and waited patiently for the posturing mech to get down to business, intrigued despite themselves.

"The only minibot with wings. None of them had even guessed. Yet it explained so much, missing data, copied maps, surprise attacks that would go so wrong…"

Sunstorm began striding around Bumblebee again, the small mech glaring up at him, the apprehension and fear building inside his tense frame as Sunstorm slowly and worryingly revealed unfortunate truths… of course not even Jazz had known just how Bumblebee was such an efficient spy. He'd thankfully never questioned it, just reaped the rewards. Bumblebee hadn't minded lying to keep his secret, because ultimately he was doing good, so what did it matter?

Ooooh, but it would matter if he found out just how Bumblebee was so proficient at his job… the lie would be seen as a personal insult, and no way would Jazz, or any other Ark member trust him if they knew what he was…

Sunstorm was smirking down at his carefully schooled faceplates, as though he could read Bumblebee's mind and see his fears unfurling.

"We worked so hard to separate you from your friends… you don't know how long it's taken to organise a raid where you've come out into the open for us. Come now, won't you indulge us with a show my little spy?"

Sunstorms vocals had a hungry edge to them now as he circled, fingers reaching out and trailing, feather light yet somehow sinister as they dragged across his back plating. Bumblebee hunched and tried to escape the touch, but if he leaned any further forward he'd fall flat on his face. He shuddered as the golden jet traced the spare-tire cover on his back plating… or at least, what was supposed to look like a spare tire cover. It was almost as if the slagger knew his specialised modifications, knew that beneath his digits was hidden his secret, bitter-sweet burden.

"They thought they had a traitor, but they had a little spy. Flying in and out of the Decepticon base with no one being the wiser."

The words were nearly whispered, a definite, predatory, anticipative edge to the seeker's vocals now.

"Can we hurry this up please? It was hard enough to convince Megatron to go on this raid, I don't want him on my aft when he realises we weren't even present for several breems." Starscream snapped, optics intent on Bumblebee.

"Oh, if you _insist_… sorry, my sweet Bee, but you'll just drag this out, I know you too well. It's not like it will matter, this grounder mode of yours is frankly worth spoiling…"

Bumblebee cried out as the digits that had been caressing his back plates suddenly clawed into him and _ripped._

Bumblebee shouted, growled, and couldn't hold back a whimper as the specialised subspace mods were torn right open… inhibitor relays damaged and triggering the secondary transform against his will.

"_No!"_ He half gasped, half moaned, as the unmistakeable sounds of transformation cogs heralded the revelation of his secret, the parts of him so carefully hidden with Ratchet's help all those vorns ago sliding smoothly from their concealed and skilfully crafted hiding places.

The collective gasp from the seekers standing around changed the mood in the air completely.

The tension shot up, and Bumblebee's optics were shuttered tight. He didn't want to believe it was happening… so _easily _at that… but he couldn't even feel appropriately scared for himself… not when it felt so _good_… the soft air currents passing over his quivering, too often suppressed wings, the quiet thrum of power feeding readily to his turbines, the sudden lightness, knowing he could just lift off with a thought and kiss the sky… it was like a drug.

"You _weren't _lying… I must say, this IS a surprise." Starscream uttered quietly, a dangerous kind of purr to his normally screechy vocals.

"Ha! Pay up 'Warp!" Thundercracker crowed in triumph. Bumblebee onlined his optics to glare at his audience, defying them to pass judgement on him. He noticed that Skywarp seemed too curious and excited to be all that disappointed about losing his bet with Thundercracker.

Sunstorm didn't seem at all interested in his team-mates reactions… his attention was wholly focussed on Bumblebee, who was realising how uncomfortable the binding of his servos behind his back was given his wings now forced his arms lower. His arms however, were forced to the back of his processor as Sunstorm came around in front of him and grasped the leading edges of his wings, drawing him into a sudden and searing kiss, against which he fought viciously, only to whimper as Sunstorm's grip on his wings became painful.

"Heeeey, 'Screamer… I don't suppose you mind us missing a little more battle-action to catch _this _action?" Skywarp snickered as he gestured to where the bright gold flier seemed to be gearing up to ravage his mini-seeker prisoner.

"I don't suppose it could hurt." Starscream snickered, optics glowing bright as he watched the spectacle with clear amusement and interest.

One of the reasons Bumblebee had run from Sunstorm was _this…_ he may have been created a seeker himself, but he was something of an exception to the rules, given he was one of a kind. While many of the clone flier models had exhibitionist tendencies when it came to interfacing, he certainly did _not…_ well, not that he didn't enjoy it when the twins would pretend like they would 'face him right in the middle of the rec room, but that was _always _borderline discreet and they'd _never _actually do it without his permission… and even then they probably wouldn't cause they found keeping his sex-kitten nature secret a total turn-on.

But not only was Sunstorm quite partial to exhibitionism, he was partial to roughness, and all kinds of kink, and he actively wanted to _flaunt _Bumblebee in public displays of interface regularly, something Bumblebee had been hard pressed never to allow before he ran… and even then, he hadn't been able to prevent it that one night, hell the golden seeker had practically _raped _him.

Feeling a much more seeker-ish swell of anger, Bumblebee's engine growled and he bit at the large, perfectly contoured lips trying to part his own.

Sunstorm withdrew with a gasp and an angry flash of his bright yellow optics, looking very much like he would strike Bumblebee, who glared defiantly back. A blow never came however, as energon dripped from the torn dermal metal he had bitten. Instead, to his dismay, it only seemed to serve as kindling to Sunstorm's fire.

He felt the larger seeker's plating begin to emit that hot radiation to which he was immune in pulsing waves. He struggled harder in the jet's grasp with a whine, but the grip on his over-sensitive wings was just too painful.

Sunstorm began to caress him… ooooh how he remembered those touches, how he loved their knowing motions and bitterly hated them to his very core at the same time.

He shuddered, hearing Sunstorm purr loudly, reverberating his already high-strung and partially charged chassis, but he refused to moan.

The others came to mind… Jazz and Prowl, the twins, their loving touches, beautiful words and tender embraces, their acceptance and affection…

He whimpered, knowing this was the end of it all, and he would be taken away by Sunstorm and become a slave to his whim, his public toy, his destined treasure, and he would _waste away…_ he would rather be pierced right through the spark, right now, to avoid his fate.

At his whimper, Sunstorm seemed to realise by the anguished tone that he was not responding positively to his touches… that he was recoiling, resisting, and looking at his face…

"Who are you thinking about, _hmm? Who? ANSWER!"_

Just like that, there he was… that insanely volatile side that came with the radiation addled processor of a mech who believes they are a living God. A living, lustful, powerful, _vengeful_ god…

The seeker had grasped Bumblebee's chin in a vice like and painful grip, forcing the small flier to look him in the optics. Bumblebee stared back defiantly.

"I don't want you Sunstorm… I never will." The winged beetle uttered coldly, barely above a whisper.

With a growl and a change of demeanour so quick even the other seekers shuttered their optics a few times in surprise, the golden flier raised the smaller mech by his neck and threw him hard to his side.

Bumblebee grunted in pain as a sensitive wing scraped harshly across the ground, but the damage, while painful, was superficial.

"You cannot deny me! You cannot deny the very will of PRIMUS! You know there is no other, my sweet-sting! You forget that you are _mine, _you were MADE for me! You will do all that I will you to, and there will be, _no_, question!"

Bumblebee looked up, refusing to meet Sunstorm's optics, instead looking at the other seekers. Starscream was watching the golden Seeker's outburst with what looked like appreciation… he was certainly displaying his Decepticon qualities very well right now, and obviously Starscream had had his doubts about the flippant, ego-centric, slightly maniacal seeker.

Sunstorm growled at his passive aggressive refusal to look him in the optics, and stormed over to no doubt continue to cow Bumblebee, but the minibot was not helpless, despite his size… and what was more he was desperate now, to escape the fate he had hidden from for so long, even if he couldn't go back to the Autobots…

Bumblebee kicked out and hit hard against the heel-cone of one of Sunstorms thrusters. It was literally his 'Achilles heel' as the humans would call it. The cone structure was very strong when it came to supporting the upright weight of the large mech, but a hard blow from the side easily warped the metal.

Sunstorm cursed loudly and hopped on the spot, clutching his pede.

Bumblebee felt a rush of burning energy… another seeker trait, flooding through his processors now that his inhibitor relays had been damaged along with the subspace pockets that hid his flier transform components.

He stretched his arms back painfully far and ignited his main tail thruster where it sat on his back. The scorching heat damaged the sensors in his servos slightly, but effectively melted and severed the low-grade wire binding his wrist joints.

Bumblebee propelled himself to his feet using his free arms and thrashing legs, but Sunstorm leapt on him with a snarl before he could escape.

He heard the other fliers jeering and leering as Sunstorm clawed into his frame while he thrashed uselessly. The bigger mech had his arms pinned back with his own looped under the shoulder joints and servos ripping at his chest-plate.

Bumblebee cried out as radiation heat assaulted his sensitive wings and his tail-fins scraped against the other's cockpit. Sunstorm was tearing away at the hood of his ground alt. mode, the glass in the windows and windshield shattering under pressure, the metal warping painfully as the big gold seeker attempted to reveal the minibot's own hidden cockpit, which rested under his yellow Volkswagen roof.

Bumblebee _hated _how weak he was against the attack… he just couldn't win, not against Sunstorm… if he could, he'd never of had to go into hiding in the first place.

"You will learn, my sweet-Bee, oh I will teach you your lesson!" the words were growled, half seductive, half feral and deadly in his audio before one of his helm horns was bitten down upon hard, making him cry out sharply at the pain.

"BEE!"

The minibot never thought he'd heard such a wonderful and terrifying sound in his life… the chorus of the mechs he loved crashing though the trees to come to his rescue.

"NO! HE IS MINE, KEEP AWAY!"

Sunstorm was beginning to sound hysterical, and the other seekers closest to him backed away as his radiation field flared dangerously.

Desperate, Bumblebee squirmed and tried to activate his transform sequence… maybe he could salvage this, maybe… with a bit of good lying and some swift help from Ratchet…

Bumblebee's wings scraped painfully as they attempted to retract into warped back plating, and they nearly managed to fold back into his sub-space mods… but the wing he'd landed on when thrown had bent just the slightest bit, and the ailerons were still sticking out… not to mention his cockpit was now quite visible where the glass of his chest plate had been smashed and one corner door-column bent away from his body.

"Mine! _MINE!_" the insensible golden jet hissed as he dug his digits into gaps in Bumblebee's plating, making him yelp in pain.

Suddenly, laser fire was erupting everywhere, and Starscream took to the air with his trine, returning fire with the suddenly appeared autobot SIC and TIC.

Sunstorm's wing mates were not smart enough to get their afts in the air post-haste, and as a consequence, each ended up with their own Lambo twin.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe wasted no time laying into the two new seekers, pouncing and pounding… really it was the easiest Jet Judo they'd ever done, the idiot slaggers weren't even taking off!

When Starscream and his wing mates decided retreat was more advantageous, they left their flier comrades to deal with four exceedingly pissed Autobots, and Prowl immediately made a run for Sunstorm. But as the edge of the radiation field hit him he froze in his tracks, skidding on the ground as he halted and staggered back slightly.

He growled and made to press ahead with a steely look in his optics, but Bumblebee cried out, "NO!"

That was when Prowl looked at him… _really _looked at him… and realised something was most definitely _not right._

Before he could assess what he saw, the apoplectic golden Seeker that was clinging and snarling at the minibot jerked roughly where he stood… before neatly keeling over forwards, pinning Bumblebee to the ground under his unmoving chassis.

The wave of radiation began to abate, and standing opposite Prowl on the other edge of the radiation limit was Sunstreaker, who lowered his rifle with a piercing cold look still in his optics.

He hadn't been able to kill the seeker with the shot (the laser pulse stopping short of the spark chamber due to radioactive interference) but it was clear that was what he'd been aiming for, and his aim was certainly true.

Sunstreaker had already knocked cold the dark blue seeker… Sideswipe was still subduing the green one, but it didn't take long.

Jazz had joined Prowl at the tactician's side, and the four edged impatiently at the slowly dissipating radiation field, eager to get to Bumblebee.

Prowl shared a look with Jazz that told him the saboteur had also seen the worrying changes to Bumblebee's frame… but neither of them had a clue what it meant.

Before any of them could get within even a meter of the yellow seeker and their minibot companion (who seemed to have been jarred into stand-by offline by the fall and the pressure on his injuries), the sound of running pedes came from the tree line they themselves had emerged from.

They turned with rifles ready, only to hastily lower them as Ratchet came tearing over.

How he was prepared with a radiation dissipating wand, none of them dared to ask… all they knew was his attention was focussed solely on getting to Bumblebee.

Prowl couldn't shake the distinct impression that Ratchet had been… prepared for this.

How that was possible, he didn't know, but he was sure to ask when they returned to the ark… once , of course, Bumblebee was safe.

The twins looked both shocked and appalled when they tried to approach and Ratchet told them to stay back.

"You don't have medical resistance to the radioactivity he's still giving off, I don't need to worry about your fried circuits and melted plating on top of Bumblebee's injuries thankyou." The medic said gruffly before they could argue.

It was at least two tense Breems before Ratchet let them anywhere near Bumblebee, instructing that they put him in Ratchet's hold once the medic Transformed.

The twins did this with great care, and Prowl found himself frowning at the offline yellow mech… Ratchet had not only put the minibot in stasis to prevent pain from his injuries, but he'd fixed whatever strange changes Prowl had noted on the spy's frame…

He shared a meaningful look with Jazz before the two officers and the twins transformed and flanked Ratchet. They all headed back to the ark, the main contingent of the army having by now driven off the decepticons.

* * *

"What the frag was that about?" Sideswipe asked tersely, questioning no one in particular as the look in Sunstreaker's optics mirrored his query.

They were sitting outside the medbay with Jazz. Prowl had needed to head off and do the necessary debrief with Optimus, but he would likely join them in a few kliks. They had been back for a cycle, and the only thing Ratchet had said in regards to Bumblebee's condition was 'stay the frag out of my medbay until I say you can come in'.

So they had waited outside, silently, unwilling to leave without seeing that Bee was OK. None of them had injuries severe enough to require attention, and their self repair systems had by now nearly finished their work.

What over-charge had been in their systems that they hadn't managed to burn during battle had drained with the adrenalin of Bumblebee's plight. They all of them felt empty and off-balanced by the less than preferred means of energy dissipation. Really, they just wanted to know the minibot was undamaged in both body and mind.

Jazz looked up at Sideswipe's vague question, feeling rather unnerved that he actually had some crazy, impossible idea that could be the answer. And of course, he knew the red mech was referring to the involvement of a whole two seeker trines just to capture one minibot.

"Didn't either of ya see… something odd goin' on with Bee's frame?" he questioned quietly, a small frown marring his faceplates.

Sunstreaker shared an uneasy glance with his twin. "I thought something was off… I thought Sunstorm had done something to him, added… I don't know, extra stuff on him, that seeker is insane, it wouldn't surprise me if he tried to modify his victim for some psychotic reason known only to him." Sunstreaker mumbled angrily.

"I didn't see anything, I was too focussed on taking out the slagging bird-brains… but I still don't get what they wanted with him." Sideswipe said, his faceplate mirroring Jazz's.

"Well… so far as I can tell, seems like Bee's got some history with Sunstorm. Never mentioned it before, but I could understand why." Jazz muttered thoughtfully.

"Yea, but _how _does he have history with that planet-ego jet? I mean, he's a minibot, since when do fliers, Seekers no less, fraternise with grounders let alone _small_ grounders. From what I know of Screamer and his buddies they particularly _loath _minibots… not as much as they hate me and Sunny, but close." Sideswipe mused with no small amount of confusion. Jazz's frown only deepened.

"I have a bad feeling that I know why, or how… but it's crazy, I don't even wanna entertain the idea until I can put it past Prowler."

"Are you saying that whatever changes Sunstorm made…" Sunstreaker blurted suddenly before snapping his lips together in a firm line, an uneasy look on his faceplate. It was as if he didn't want to know, suddenly, because the answer was probably something he didn't want to hear.

"I didn't get a good look. Prowl probably saw better than me, but from where I was standing… I coulda sworn the extra metal was kinda… in deep enough to suggest it wasn't just put there by someone in the space of the breem and a half we weren't there." Jazz said, his voice low and subdued.

Sideswipe opened his mouth to question what exactly the two had seen when pede-falls heralded Prowl's approach.

The three looked up at the stony faced tactician, but the black and white mech's expression became more concerned the closer he got.

"Has Ratchet said anything?" he asked quietly as he came level with them.

They all shook their heads, and the Datsun's door-wings drooped slightly. Then, as if he had been listening in on their conversation, the doors to the med-bay wooshed open softly and Ratchet stood, affixing four sets of worried optics with a single, stern glance before motioning them all inside.

None of the four were worried about being seen looking so concerned for Bumblebee, the rest of the ark knew the beetle was close to Jazz and Prowl, and that the Twins seemed to have somewhere along the way to pranking the minibot grown rather protective and friendly with him. None of them quite knew the extent of the relationship between the four, and all of them were happy to keep it that way. However, at least no one would see it as strange that they would all together want to visit the injured minibot.

Jazz brushed against Prowl in a soothing gesture as they entered the medbay, and the tactician flashed him a grateful look before he scanned the room for Bumblebee.

He saw only other patients who had suffered a few laser shot wounds and plating tears (and one servo detachment in the case of a grumpy Cliffjumper ). Ratchet however was leading them to one of the private operating rooms in the back of the bay, which caused the SIC to twitch his wings in slight alarm. Those rooms were generally reserved for major or life-threatening surgery, surely Bumblebee hadn't been _that _badly wounded?

But then his logic chip threw up that disturbing calculation relating to the odd changes he'd noted to Bumblebee's frame… and he thought perhaps the placement in that room had more to do with privacy than severity of injuries.

Trying to cast aside the disturbing conclusions nagging at his CPU, he threw Jazz a worried glance, which the saboteur returned with a slight shrug.

The twins, who were following the SIC and TIC, did not fail to notice their small gestures, and had a running dialogue across their spark bond.

_:So what did you guys see? What was Jazz talking about?: _Sideswipe asked anxiously.

_:There was extra plating of some-sort sticking out of Bee__'s back and pedes. I couldn't be sure but… seems like Jazz is worried about it being the same thing I'm worried about it being:_

_:Which is?: _Sideswipe prodded impatiently as they came to the door of the surgery room.

_:We may all be jumping to conclusions, and it may well have been something the seekers did, but I swear it looked like he had aile-:_

"He's good as new. Seekers didn't do much more than severe surface damage. He'll need the rest of the day off to rest, but his repair welds are settled, so as soon as he's ready to go back on duty he'll be fine." Ratchet grumbled, not sounding at all as light mooded as he should given the news.

Bumblebee was sitting up on the edge of the berth, optics on the floor… it disturbed all four of them just how stricken and nervous he seemed. Something was very, very wrong with this scene…

"It's great to hear that, Ratchet… but why are we here then? Couldn't you just discharge Bumblebee?" Prowl asked softly, his tone still professional despite the warring emotions and concern within him.

At this Ratchet shot the minibot a look that was definitely anxious and disapproving, but with a deep cycle of air he responded "He thought it was necessary to disclose something about his encounter and injuries with the four of you. AND-" the medic became emphatic to the point where it sounded very much like he was threatening them, "what he's about to reveal to you does _not _leave this room, do I make myself clear?"

The four of them exchanged slightly startled looks between each other and the minibot who's gaze was still fixed on the floor.

"We will not reveal anything if you don't want us to, you have our word Bumblebee."

When Prowl addressed him directly rather than Ratchet, the yellow mech looked up. The actual _fear _in his optics startled them.

"And just to be clear, I don't entirely condone this. None of you strictly need to know this at all-" Ratchet groused, but Bumblebee cut him off in a small but determined voice.

"Yes they do, Ratchet… I'm sure they saw, anyway… they deserve an explanation, at least, and well… I can't do it anymore… I can't lie to them, not after everything they've done for me."

Prowl was taken aback by the near desperation in Bumblebee's tone, as if he was about to write his own death sentence.

Ratchet's expression seemed to soften and he cycled another, resigned sigh. "Go on then… you better show them."

The four of them watched in utter shock and fascination as Bumblebee slid from the berth, stood tense for a few moments… and then with the sound of a transformation sequence engaging, something extraordinary happened…

Before them stood Bumblebee… the same yellow minibot they had all grown to love so deeply… but now he had _wings_… and not just wings, he had what looked like the tail and thrusters and… Primus, was that _really _a cockpit under the un-tinted glass of his chassis?

The four of them merely stood with their mouths agape in total shock for several astroseconds.

Bumblebee's wings were visibly trembling under their disbelieving stares.

Eventually, it was Sideswipe who broke the silence.

"_Primus…_are you… are you trying to… tell us that… you're, like, Sunstorm's _lovechild?_"

It was Bumblebee's turn to stare open mouthed, and Ratchet actually smacked a red servo over his faceplate.

"He's a _seeker _model you glitch." The medic said thickly under his own hand.

"Well… technically a triple-changer since you reformatted me, but I… was created a Seeker…" Bumblebee said uncomfortable, gaze falling to the floor again.

"Wait… so those aren't additions? They're… and you're a… but… you're a minibot."

No one in the room had ever heard Sunstreaker stumble over his words so much as he did in that moment.

Prowl, personally, was merely surprised his logic circuits hadn't given out on him by now. But seeing as they hadn't, they were providing him with some pressing questions instead.

"How have you hidden your original form all this time?" he asked in slight awe.

The mini-jet chanced a look up at the tactician's face… it seemed by his odd expression that he had not been expecting such an amicable response from them. And given that this was a pretty big secret to be hiding, Prowl supposed he could understand Bumblebee bracing for the worst.

"Ratchet installed special subspace units in my plating, every obvious part of my Jet mode is hidden in those, except my cockpit… but no-one sees that when I adjust the tint of my windshield and windows, and my transform is altered so no one sees it when I go into vehicle mode either." Bumblebee explained.

"But _why?_… Why'd ya hafta change in the first place? What made you go to all that trouble? And how did you not go mad, I thought fliers went nuts when they're grounded for too long." Jazz asked, perplexed and, though he tried not to sound it, a little hurt. After all, he'd been closer to Bumblebee than the other three before they'd gotten together, and not _once _had he ever suspected the minibot to be hiding anything from him, let alone something as big as this.

"Sunstorm." Bumblebee said with some strange mix of exasperation, hate and weariness.

"Soooo, he's… not your creator or anything?" Sideswipe asked timidly.

Bumblebee shook his head. "No… but he thinks that because I'm the only mech who isn't affected by his radiation that we're destined by Primus to be together… except his definition of being together involves owning and doing whatever he wants to me." Bumblebee spat bitterly before cycling a ventilation to calm himself, "Back before the war I was with him, and it was great for a little while, but then… then his instability started to show, and when he started trying to force me to do stuff, and control me… and then he got really violent, and I… had to get away. But I couldn't hide anywhere, not the only minibot-seeker on cybertron! Reformatting… was the only way to hide. And Ratchet was the one who did it. And he got me a new job, and taught me how to be a ground mech, and helped me get over the nearly going insane thing."

"What's this 'nearly' business?" Ratchet snorted suddenly, arms crossed over his windshield and mood a little lighter, "if I hadn't found that abandoned store-house on the Iacon docks for you to fly around in, you woulda cracked after one orn."

"Yea, well, I got better… I haven't flown since my last mission, and that was two months ago now."

"Missions? You mean… so _that's _how you… Primus, it kinda seems so obvious now, no wonder you're so slaggin' good at spyin' on the 'Cons." Jazz said with a grin spreading onto his faceplates.

Bumblebee seemed both slightly startled by and dubious about Jazz's expression.

"So… you don't think I'm a traitor?" he said in a very small, ever so slightly hopeful voice.

To everyone's surprise, Sunstreaker snorted loudly at this.

He fixed the mini-jet with intense optics. "You really are a seeker… just 'cause you're our best spy, doesn't mean we wouldn't notice if you were double-dealing us out to the 'Cons. You're good, but you're not THAT good." he said softly. There was a definite sharp edge to his tone but… he was clearly trying to make a playful jibe. Apparently he was taking the revelation the hardest, but even he had already forgiven the yellow mech.

"Does Prime know about this?" Prowl asked softly, no accusation in his tone.

Bumblebee nodded, wings relaxing slightly from their tense upright position as he realised that they were not all rejecting him outright upon his confession.

"Ratchet and I told him before I joined the Autobots… I was surprised he ever let me in, but I knew I could never reveal myself, not at the beginning of the war, with all the seekers going over to Megatron… no one would ever trust me, and with Sunstorm always on the lookout, I'd only bring danger down on everyone."

"That slagger will never lay a servo on you again if I can help it." Sunstreaker growled, optics glinting possessively.

"Yea, one psycho lover at a time is enough for our resident super-secret-mini-jet." Sideswipe grinned, his golden twin throwing him a death glare.

"Scary how they've even got nearly identical paint colours too, maybe there's some link to gold enamel and processor workings that no-one's found yet." Jazz teased, Sunstreaker turning his iresome glare on the grinning saboteur.

Prowl's door wings fluttered slightly to see a small smile creep onto Bumblebee's face plate at the banter as well.

"Well, seeing as you've all taken this so well, it's about time I kicked you all out of my fragging medbay." Ratchet grumbled nonchalantly with a reassuring glance at Bumblebee, who nodded and retracted his secret jet parts, until standing there was the same old Bumblebee they'd known (or thought they'd known) for stellar cycles.

"Those subspace modifications are really well crafted." Sunstreaker muttered approvingly as he appraised Bumblebee's form with a new eye.

Ratchet shuttered a few times, daring to believe the infamously high-standards artist twin had just complimented his handiwork. He was slightly less gruff with them as he shooed them out.

"Well I'll be slagged, a round with six seekers and only a cycle under Ratchet's servos and you're not even _scratched._" Cliffjumper groused at Bumblebee as he passed.

The minibot offered up a weak smile and an apologetic wave as he followed Prowl and Jazz out of the medbay, the twins in tow, who both gave the red minibot pronounced sneers as they went by. Ratchet stomped over to Cliffjumper's berth and irritably began to re-affix the red minibot's servo.

* * *

Bumblebee felt distinctly… confused.

Even though he knew the attention of all four of his favourite mechs were focused on him intensely, it was somehow… comforting, rather than unsettling.

They had returned to where they had been before the Decepticon alarm had gone off. The others had not demanded anything of him, but he knew what they wanted, their optics said it all.

The moment the door was locked, Bumblebee allowed his true form freedom once more. For at least a klik, there was only the silent and palpable awe of the four larger mechs and Bumblebee's patience, allowing them to simply absorb him as he was… as he _really _was.

His emotions were somewhere between thrilling relief and nervous tension. He still wasn't entirely sure where he stood with them all. Would they have to start again? Would he be denied any intimacy? A place in their berths, until he proved himself trustworthy again? He didn't know, and the thought of returning to a cold, lonely berth indefinitely nearly made him physically shudder. But whatever the case… whatever it took to show them, he'd do it.

He opened his mouth to say so… and closed it after a moment, completely unsure of where to start and his spark and wings quivering with doubt and uncertainty.

His failed attempt at voicing any kind of understanding or apology seemed to snap the others out of their trance however.

The first to move was Sunstreaker, who very slowly, as though in some sort of dream, walked around Bumblebee, inspecting his body anew. The look in his optics was nothing short of intrigued… and Bumblebee, glancing nervously at the beautiful golden toughliner a few times, noted he had what looked like an almost appreciative look In his optics.

When Sunstreaker stopped, he very tentatively… in a very un-sunstreakerish way… stretched out a hand towards one of the yellow and blue striped black wings. He locked optics with Bumblebee in what was unmistakeably a request for permission.

Bumblebee held his gaze as he gave a slight nod.

He broke it as golden servos trailed tentatively… curiously… reverently, across the leading edge of the wing. Bumblebee shuttered his optics and ex-vented with a shiver that ran through the sensitive panel under Suntreaker's digits, and the golden twin's mouth plate curled into a tiny, delighted smile.

Bumblebee leaned into his touch and bit his bottom lip component.

Before he was quite sure how it happened, there were more servos on him… caressing, stroking, exploring, mapping…

_They still want me__… they want to know me and feel me and- _"Oh Primus!" Bumblebee gasped as he felt what he was sure was a glossa run lightly over one of his ailerons.

"Mmmmm… still tastes like the rest of you." Sunstreaker purred, pressing the wing to his chassis and revving his engine, earning a whine from the overwhelmed Mini-jet.

"I think it best I confirm that theory before we can be definitively sure." Prowl said softly, and the next thing Bumblebee knew, he was moaning loudly as Prowl ran his glossa along the leading edge of the other wing before closing his mouth around the aileron on the end and _sucking._

Bumblebee's veritable howl of pleasure signalled a failing of his knee joints, but Jazz and Sideswipe had already twined themselves around his lower half and supported him as if he weighed nothing.

"No wonder you're such a little 'facing fiend in the recharge room… I bet you had to self-service sooo much before we came along to satisfy that seeker lust of yours." Sideswipe mumbled dirtily into Bumblebee's hip plating as he traced the edge of one of the stabilising winglets that protruded from behind his pede wheel-arch. His other servo was trailing up a seam on the mini-triple changer's inner thigh-plating. "You have _no _idea…" Bumblebee moaned breathily, noting the twitch of what had to be Jazz's servos at this statement.

"Mmmmmm tell us what you did Bee… tell us how to please ya…" the saboteur groaned arousingly as he traced kisses over Bumblebee's right midriff and teased his fingers under his windscreen to try and caress the edge of his cockpit.

Bumblebee gasped and let out a few little 'ah!' noises, writhing at touches to parts of him that had felt nothing but his own servos for stellar cycles.

"I… _ooooh_… I used to… _nnnh!_ I fingered by port and… _uuuuh_, Primus YES my wings, Sunny please do that again!"

The golden twin put on an innocent expression that the beetle hardly noticed in the throes of his ecstasy.

"What, _this?"_ he said simply as he traced a finger beneath the flaps that allowed Bumblebee to increase or decrease his altitude. Bumblebee keened and threw his helm back, and Prowl quickly took advantage by diving into the black neck cables while firmly caressing one of the large flight vents at the top base of the wing nearest him.

Prowl pressed his chassis to the wing and revved his engine hard, and Bumblebee arched his back in response to the stimulation, his entire weight still held by the other four mechs.

Bumblebee wanted to reciprocate, to reach out and caress and pleasure, but upon flailing his servos a little just to sense in his bliss muddled processor where exactly they were… he found them thoroughly trapped by his lovers, who refused to let them go.

Resigning himself to defeat, Bumblebee allowed himself to go limp and let his body react however it deemed fit to the touches of the others.

He bucked and writhed and moaned as he was teased senseless.

He felt Jazz slide back his interface cover, and before he knew it, his spike was thrusting weakly into Sideswipe's servo while the saboteur teased his port, Sunny and Prowl still happily toying with his wings and the main thruster on his back.

"I wanna feel the first minibot Seeker inside me… I always wondered how it felt to be spiked by a flier." Sideswipe vented hotly across Bumblebee's hip, which he was nuzzling affectionately.

"But he's spiked you before, you already know how it feels." Prowl murmured in an amused tone as he kissed along the broad surface of a black wing, making sensors tingle and ping at the oh-so-light friction.

"That was him spiking me as a grounder though… he doesn't have to hide anything now, he can take me like a seeker… Primus, Bee, just feeling your spike and seeing your wings shaking like that has me wet, _please _let me…" Sideswipe moaned, looking pleadingly up into the minibot's faceplate.

Bumblebee gave him a stunned, deeply aroused look.

"Y-yes, of course!… but I thi- _hhhhhnnaaah! _You'll have to take it, I don't think… I can…_ ooooh _I can't do anything like this… _hhaaaaa, oh yes, there Prowl, THERE!_"

The tactician's glossa had worked it's way to the base of a wing, trailing the curve of the aerofoil while a servo pinched the aileron.

Sideswipe seemed more than satisfied with Bumblebee's answer and Jazz helped him re-arrange the mini-jet so that the Porsche was sitting cross legged on the floor with the yellow and black seeker half in his lap, aft supported on a thigh, the angle making Bumblebee's erect spike stand proud and quivering.

The position meant prowl could no longer reach the bottom of Bumblebee's wing with his mouth, so he took to nipping along the top edge instead, Sunstreaker lavishing attention on the other wing with his own glossa and fingers while Sideswipe knelt to position his bared and dripping valve over the small seeker's spike.

Bumblebee and Sideswipe moaned in tandem as the red twin lowered himself onto the black and yellow cord, but Bumblebee's cry was louder given a smirking Jazz had slipped two fingers into his valve at the same time he felt his spike penetrate Sideswipe's delicious wet heat.

The red toughliner seemed more than happy to ride the smaller mech draped over Jazz's knee, the saboteur drinking in the sounds and smells of all his lovers as he kissed and hummed into Bumblebee's chassis, thrusting his fingers in the mini-triple changer in time with Sideswipe's movements.

Bumblebee thrashed at the pleasure quickly consuming him. He bucked erratically into Sideswipe's clenching valve and Jazz's divine fingers, helm rolling from side to side as his wings were assaulted with delicious, processor blowing sensations.

Wave after wave of ecstasy rushed across his sensor net… the touches, the noises, the smells.

Sideswipe could sense how close to the edge Bumblebee was, so he cut any pretence and got right down to business, pumping his hips over the yellow pelvis plating, working his valve beautifully… relax, slam down, clench, pull away, relax, slam down, clench, pull away… let it slide out, relax, plunge, yes it's in, change angle, thrust harder…

Every time Bumblebee's hot cord slid through him, Sideswipe keened, watching the small seeker writhe beneath him. He smiled, the sounds Bumblebee made were driving him crazy… he whimpered as the yellow and black mech bucked up strong and hit a sensor node inside him dead on.

He continued to ride Bumblebee hard, feeling his own charge coming up fast, letting out small whimpers and whines with each delicious impalement.

Quickly, Bumblebee found himself thrusting up to meet every one of Sideswipe's movements, and his valve clenched wildly around Jazz's quick, firm penetrating thrusts with his two slicked digits.

Prowl and Sunstreaker both wrapped their mouths around his ailerons and pinched his helm horns, and that sent him crashing into his overload.

It tore through his frame in a violent shudder with a very loud cry and a forceful whirr from his main turbine. His hips jerked uncontrollably as Sideswipe quivered and slammed his own hips down, connecting to Bumblebee mid- charge release, port clenching tight and rippling in a shared overload that spurred Bumblebee's higher. The red Lamborghini gasped and keened as the power flowed from the smaller mech's systems and right through his.

Bumblebee hadn't felt exquisite ecstasy last so long in ages… It had to be a double overload, surely, when Sides had plugged in just an astrosecond after he'd gone off, and the red twin's systems and own release must have triggered a second wave.

Bumblebee's loud cry of raw bliss turned to shorter, sharper sounds with every hard thrust of Jazz's fingers in his port, hitting a particular sensor node at a particular angle again, and again, and _again…_ Sideswipe seemed to be coming along for the ride, his hips feeling almost magnetically attached to Bumblebee's own, riding and clenching and quivering, he gasped as he felt every one of Jazz's thrusts through the connection.

If Bumblebee had been purely in his grounder root-mode, he would have passed out by now… but different relays powered his flight-ready frame, and they conducted the charge release so much better, so that as the overwhelmingly sweet and intense sensations ebbed, his processor remained online to experience it all perfectly.

…Which was more than could be said for Sideswipe, who fell backwards off Bumblebee with a little sigh and a resounding _thunk._

Bumblebee shuddered with a mewl as Sunstreaker laughed around his left aileron, the vibrations doing wonderful things to his over-sensitive array reception.

Jazz finally pulled his fingers out of Bumblebee and instantly popped them in his mouth, massaging the minibot's aft as he hummed around his digits.

"Still tastes as sweet as ever." he purred when he had cleaned them.

"Primus, you must have given him one _pit _of a power surge to knock him offline." Sunstreaker mumbled, petting the wing in his grasp softly before crawling over to his brother to inspect his status.

The golden twin flicked his brother's face a few times before the red mech let out a groan and stirred, sitting up slowly with dimmed optics and a far-off, awed expression in his optics.

"_That_ was…that…_wooooooow_…"

"And here… I was worried… I'd have to earn the trust of each one of you all over again." Bumblebee panted with relieved content as he rested back against Prowl's chassis and Jazz's lap.

"Who's to say you don't? You may now have Sideswipe's trust, but I'm not yet so _convinced…_" Prowl said coolly into his audio. Bumblebee craned his neck back, wings twitching nervously until he caught the tactician's lust-filled gaze.

"I guess I'll just have to win you over too." Bumblebee purred, a small, devious smile working it's way onto his faceplate.


	2. Chapter 2

_Ooooooooooo hello._

_yes, well i told you there'd be another chappie of this._

_Least i think i did._

_OH WELL HEY GUESS WHAT THERE'S ANOTHER CHAPTER OF THIS and it's looooong 83_

_THIS IS FOR KAITIE._

_SHE MADE SEEKER!BEE._

_GO WORSHIP HER. NOW. www. weeping-cheetah. deviantart. com_

_SO about the chapter. Action scenes are actioney. Also i like starting chapters with smut and fluff. Would like to say i could do it with every chapter, but i just can't with the next. Oh there will be smut. But just not at the start._

_ANYWHO go ahead and enjoy, i talk too much._

_Any questions or confusions feel free to ask, i know it might get confusing, i'm not sure i've properly revealed eveything as i see it in my head, so yea, ask if you need to.  
_

_~Death Out  
_

* * *

Bumblebee cycled online… sort of.

He let his processor hover in that wonderful space somewhere between coming out of unconsciousness and truly booting up. He left his systems on stand-by and let his meta perceive the situation.

He didn't want to move. Apart from being contentedly drained from their night's activities, Bumblebee was quite eager to remain pressed against the other four warm bodies.

Usually, he would nestle himself under the pile of mechs, happy for the warm pressure to engulf him. But with his wings now out, he couldn't practically take the risk of them being lain on or squashed or pinched, that would certainly not be comfortable.

So instead, he found himself looking up at the ceiling, wings splayed over the chassis of a Datsun and a Porsche, the thruster and tail on his back nestled snugly between the two officers who each hugged a wing to them. Pinning him to the black and white mechs were the twins, each of them splayed over Jazz and Prowls legs, both cushioning their helms on opposite sides of Bumblebee's midriff.

Bumblebee cycled softly, contentedly. He Didn't want to wake any of them, he didn't want to spoil this… he would happily lie like this for cycles, feeling the thrum of sparks under each wing and the soft ventilations over his stomach plating, the comforting pressure of the toughliners each embracing one of his legs, as though they'd fallen into recharge still fighting over him.

He let a soft smile creep over his faceplate. His own arms were reclined back above his helm, servos laying idle near Prowl and Jazz's faceplates.

With a contented, soft sigh through the vents behind his helm, Bumblebee nuzzled his faceplates into the neck cables nearest him… he thought they might be Prowls… the soft purr of the Datsun's engine under that wing told him it was. Slowly Bumblebee allowed himself to cycle offline again. As a grounder he used less energy, and he'd been in that mode so often for so long he'd forgotten how much more recharge he required as a seeker. His energy usage was admittedly more efficient, but it was also higher. The extra off-duty time given to him by Ratchet was much appreciated.

* * *

The next time Bumblebee onlined, it was not by way of some well ingrained routine. His optics blazed online and he gasped. It took him a moment to figure out just what had forced him back to awareness so quickly. But as a shock of pleasure raced through his circuits he was quick to determine the source.

Looking down his own chassis, he felt a shiver of heat and lust spread through him to find Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were awake, and had, while Bumblebee was still in recharge, opened his interface panel and coaxed out his now pressurised spike. They were _both _licking it as if savouring a rust stick. Sunstreaker looked up at Bumblebee's bright optics and, with a coy smile, he pressed his pert lips right over the hub of Bumblebee's cord and _sucked_, a surprised keen escaping the mini-jet as he felt the golden mech's glossa dip into the connective pins inside the tip. Sideswipe, all the while, was running his glossa up and down the underside of the black and yellow spike, caressing the sensor nodes, and Bumblebee began to writhe, now registering lightly pawing digits and lips being pressed to both his wings.

Sunstreaker's ministrations, now that he was online, quickly picked up in intensity.

He placed a servo on Sideswipe's helm and pushed him down, the red twin not really resisting as his faceplate was shoved towards Bumblebee's port. Sunstreaker held it pressed against Bumblebee's bare interface circuitry and Sideswipe began ravaging the valve with his glossa expertly, drawing a wail of pleasure from Bumblebee.

Sunstreaker, meanwhile, had slid all the way down his spike until it was entirely engulfed by his mouth. He lashed it with his glossa as Jazz nipped along the edge of one of Bumblebee's wings, the small triple changer not caring if anyone could hear him while he loudly voiced his ecstasy.

The others didn't seem to mind it at all. And Bee wouldn't expect them to, he knew from experience the effects his cries of pleasure had on his lovers.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe moaned in tandem around his spike and into his valve.

Bumblebee squirmed uncontrollably, whimpering and whining in ecstasy, hips twitching and quivering under their onslaught, while Prowl and Jazz dove their fingers into every chassis seam they could find, mouths nibbling along the edges of his wings.

The broad input of pleasure signals worked Bumblebee up faster than he could control, and after less than a klik of their combined efforts, he overloaded spectacularly, arching up and writhing as he cried out loudly.

Sunstreaker moaned as he felt the tingle of electric discharge in his mouth from the twitching spike, and Sideswipe eagerly lapped up the sudden gush of lubricant from the small jet's valve as it clenched excitedly around his own probing, lapping glossa.

Eventually, with a moan of satiation, Bumblebee collapsed panting onto the bodies beneath him, hips and wings still twitching.

"I could get used to having mini-seeker for breakfast every day." Sideswipe purred as he rested his chin on Bumblebee's thigh with a broad, goofy grin.

Bumblebee heard Jazz chuckle somewhere underneath him.

The seeker in question merely gave an exhausted moan and shuddered at the pleasurable thought, which caused the rest to grin.

Prowl was still stroking one of his wings. He seemed to be mapping it intently, and Bumblebee didn't mind the tactile attention or curiosity at all.

"So, what kind of jet are you? 'Cause I know you aren't big enough to be an F-15 like Screamer and his wing-nut trine." Sunstreaker asked curiously, leaning on the small mech's other black thigh.

"I'm the same type as Skydive, but I have a different engine build to my thrusters, so I'm probably faster than him. I can never remember what model it is… I don't really think about it enough because I can't take that form much. Actually… you know I think I've only used it twice since we crashed on earth."

"Skydive is an F-16 fighting falcon. A much nicer model than the F-15's in my opinion." Prowl supplied quietly underneath Bumblebee with a purr from his engine, making the smaller mech mewl.

"So… are you going to try and keep this a secret from the rest of the Ark? Or do you think Optimus will want you to let the cyber-cat out of the bag now that the other seekers on earth know anyway…" Sideswipe mused, expression sobering.

"I don't know… I think… I'd like to keep it a secret as long as possible, but then telling everyone sooner means there's more time to gain their trust before another battle. It's just, I kinda like having you guys know when no-one else does."

Jazz hugged a wing to him, engine revving gently. "mmmm I kinda like the thought of that too. Plus, if ya expose yerself as a jet, Optimus might wanna move ya into the air-squad, and what am I gonna do without my favourite little spy?" The saboteur pouted.

"I don't think he'll do that. He knows what an asset you are to special ops, it's likely he'd just get you to do some training manoeuvres with the aerial bots like he does with Powerglide and Skyfire, so you can collaborate when necessary." Prowl reassured them, and Bumblebee stroked a hand over the tactician's cheek-arch affectionately.

"I have to admit, the thought of flying with the Aerial bots is tempting… I don't even _know _how long it's been since I've flown with anyone else… and it's been _maddening _to see them do drills and not be able to jump in, they need SO much work on their execution!"

The others all laughed at this. "Don't tell me you're one of those hot-shot seekers that has to tell every other flyer how to do it properly?" Sideswipe moaned playfully.

"It's not a crime to want to improve the technique of fellow jets. Especially when that lot haven't had any proper training. They all need one-on-one, I mean Silverbolt isn't bad, when he forgets to be afraid of heights, but the rest have some seeeerious issues." Bumblebee explained a little defensively.

"And here I thought I was the only one noticing it." Prowl said quietly and Bumblebee wiggled the wing in his grasp playfully.

But as Prowl stroked along it's edge in response, the initial wave of pleasure it sent through Bumblebee's systems triggered a notification in his HUD.

"Ugh… wow, my tanks are really low." the small jet muttered regretfully.

Jazz, slightly surprised by this given Bumblebee had normally been fine for morning second rounds, did his own brief scan of the minibot atop him and frowned to find Bumblebee was quite right.

"Ya sure that's right? Normally yer levels ain't that bad after a night like that." the saboteur said with clear concern.

"Yea, it is actually normal… even I forgot just how much more energy I use as a seeker. I'll probably adjust a bit more again given time, but it's been ages since my turbines have been online. Even just the sensor net in my wings takes more energy to run at full function."

"Well then, come on guys, we've got a hungry seeker to refuel." Sideswipe said with a grin and a pat to Bumblebee's leg before he extricated himself from the mech pile and they all began moving to de-tangle without hurting one another.

* * *

Prowl's door-wings flicked and he straightened when they were drying off, having taken turns in Jazz's private wash-racks.

"Mmm. Optimus is requesting a de-briefing with us and Bumblebee if he's fit to later this morning." he revealed to the curious minibot and Porsche beside him.

"Yeah, that's fine, why wouldn't it be?" Bumblebee said bemusedly.

Prowl smiled slightly, communicating over his comm. Link with their commander. When his optics re-focussed on them they knew he had closed the comm. "He just wanted to be sure you'd had enough recovery time. He wasn't sure you'd actually had much time to rest last night…" the tactician trailed off, and Jazz chuckled as a flush of orange heat tinged Bumblebee's faceplates.

"That's our Prime, doesn't miss a trick that mech." Jazz quipped happily.

"When does he want to see me?" Bumblebee asked sheepishly, awkwardly trying to dry off wings he hadn't even had to wash in over a year.

"Anytime this morning is convenient. And he wanted all five of us present. Ratchet will also be there."

Prowl explained, nonchalantly taking the towel from the mini jet's servos and running it in gentle circles over the black wings.

Bumblebee couldn't help the purr that left his engine at the soft drying strokes, and it calmed his slight nerves despite himself. "I suppose I did kind of expect him to want to talk about this… probably wants to discuss how we're going to break this to the rest of the crew."

"What's to discuss? Why do they have to know?" Sunstreaker pouted as he and Sideswipe stepped out of the wash racks, starting to dry themselves off as the other three finished.

"We already talked about it Sun, it's because the rest of the seekers know now, and I don't think they'll keep it to themselves bro, you know what they're like." Sideswipe said sagely. Sunstreaker put on his customary grimace. "Who's going to believe those stupid slaggers though? I bet old Megatron is proclaiming them all insane right now."

"Yea, but that's the thing Sunny," Jazz replied gently, "What if he does believe them? Megs doesn't like to listen to his Seekers, but he did hang around the Vos towers for quite a while when he was recruitin'-"

"-And I was… kinda… famous up there for a while. If he ever heard rumours about a mini-jet, he wouldn't doubt them now." Bumblebee added to Jazz's statement.

They all gave him a slightly surprised look.

"Heh… well I didn't know that… but it don't help the case either. Point is, if there's a chance Megs DOES believe them, he ain't gonna care if it's a secret to the rest of the Autobots. He's gonna want to capitalise on the last Seeker not under his control. He don't want a Seeker, mini or otherwise, able to help our own fliers." Jazz finished explaining. The Twins wore identical expressions of grudging understanding.

"And if everyone finds it out from the Decepticons before I reveal myself, no one's going to trust me any more… half of them are probably already going to have trust issues with me even if I tell them. Cliffjumper especially, given I was his room-mate for so long and he doesn't know a thing about this."

Sunstreaker growled softly. "That little slag-sucker can go socket himself if he blows a gasket over this."

Sideswipe made a derisive noise. "He probably will too. If he takes one step out of line where Bee is concerned, I'm gonna-"

"You aren't going to do anything Sideswipe. If Cliffjumper takes issue with it, he can take it to his commanding officer." Prowl said in his authoritarian tone, flicking the last of the water off his door wings.

"And if Ironhide also has a problem with it, I'll just demonstrate some reverse jet-judo in the sparring room and settle the matter that way." Bumblebee said with a mischievous smirk, the others giving him surprised looks, the twin's optics lighting up gleefully while Jazz chuckled softly and shook his helm.

Prowl merely sighed through his vents.

"Incorrigible, the lot of you. I don't know how I got so deeply ensconced in this group."

"Ah, you wouldn't have it any other way Prowler. You know what they say, friends close and enemies in your berth, best way to keep an optic on us." Sideswipe chimed, throwing an arm over Prowl's doors and shoulders, pulling him into a sudden, messy kiss on the cheek-arch, making the colour rise slightly to his faceplates.

Bumblebee giggled as Prowl gently shook Sideswipe off, giving him a light smack on the aft for his cheek. "I don't think that's quite how that expression goes, but you have something of a point." the tactician smirked.

"Come on, my tank could do with a top up too. Let's get moving before my brother molests the SIC any further." Sunstreaker sniggered.

With a sigh of his vents, Bumblebee reluctantly tucked away the evidence of his original alt. mode back into the specially crafted sub-space compartments, and filed out the door of Jazz's quarters with the others. "At least once everyone knows, I won't have to put my wings away anymore. And frankly, that'll be worth any kind of weird looks or remarks. At least you guys won't care."

Jazz grinned mischievously, "Yea, but then ya got to worry about them being unprotected from random molestation… they are very pretty." The saboteur purred, and Bumblebee couldn't help the shiver of pleasure that ran down his back strut at the suggestive tone and the thoughts it induced.

* * *

"If we tell 'em all at once in a conference style meeting, we can field questions and quash any rumours or false ideas before they start. Although we may want to make a point of stressing' that everyone keep their weapons sub-spaced. The last thing I want is a jumpy, trigger happy bot injuring Bumblebee before he has a chance to explain himself." Jazz reasoned calmly, not letting a trace of his deep emotions around the subject show through his professional tone.

Optimus Prime nodded slowly as he considered the idea.

"It does seem the best course of action… But I also like Prowl's idea of stepping the revelation, starting with physically showing the command staff, then having them explain it to their teams before the official Ark wide meeting and reveal. If all the officers are on-side first, there is more support if anyone else gets out of servo."

Jazz nodded. He, Prime and Prowl all looked to Bumblebee for confirmation that he was onboard with the idea.

"Sounds like a plan." Bumblebee smiled, but they could still see the slightly nervous edge to his forcibly calm expression.

"Don't worry Bumblebee, I'll reconfigure anyone if they want to physically take issue with you." Ratchet reassured him, with approving looks from the twins, which pulled a genuine smile out of the mini-jet.

"The question now, is how much of your personal reasons for your own reconfiguration do you want to make known? While it would help the rest of the crew understand and accept the truth a little more easily, I realise it is not an easy subject, and I understand completely if you don't wish to divulge your past publicly." Optimus continued in a gentle tone.

Bumblebee nodded gratefully, but his expression was unsettled once more.

"I'm not really sure how much I want to say. I mean, I have to say it was because of Sunstorm, but I don't think everyone's going to believe I completely changed myself just to hide from one jealous seeker. But if I mention that we were together, even if it was before the war, bots are going to think I'm a Decepticon spy… I can only imagine how hard it's going to be convincing Red Alert alone…" the small yellow mech said morosely, faceplate showing clear anxiety now.

"It isn't going to be easy. But you already have the support of three officers and the Prime, and that's a pretty good start. We'll bring them around Bumblebee, your history on the Ark has to count for something too." Ratchet said encouragingly, and given that the medic wasn't one for false hope, Bumblebee felt his worries eased at least a little.

"Yea, but bots tend ta conveniently forget history in the face of something' this big comin' out. Ya gonna have to make sure an' remind them you're still the same Bumblebee." Jazz said reasonably.

The minibot actually gave a nervous laugh.

"That's gonna be a bit hard… I mean, I'm not going to be a whole lot different, but… I'm not sure you guys know quite what happens to seekers when they have their wings out. I'm about the only mech that knows the difference, and I'm sure Perceptor is going to want to study it when he finds out, but I DO act different when my seeker form is online."

"Online? I thought the changes were only physical, do you mean you… switch being a seeker on and off?" Prowl asked with clear confusion, obviously struggling to understand a factor he hadn't known about.

"He doesn't switch it off, no, but the flight frame base programming goes into sleep mode and doesn't effect his higher processor functions when his jet form is concealed. It helps him use less energy in ground mode." Ratchet explained.

"So… how different ARE you when your wings are out?" Sideswipe asked curiously.

Bumblebee shrugged. "I don't really notice the changes so much myself usually, but I will once I'm able to stay in my triple-changer mode most of the time. I'm like me, but a seeker version of me… only not evil like most other seekers are these days… I'm not making much sense am I?" Bumblebee petered off apologetically.

Ratchet just chuckled and shared a knowing look with Prime. "He won't be different enough for the rest of the crew to stop trusting him, but it will be a bit surprising." Optimus rumbled good-naturedly, and Bumblebee flashed him a sheepish smile.

Sunstreaker suddenly started to chuckle, and the others looked at him as though he'd blown a circuit.

"Oh Primus… the aerial-bots aren't going to know what hit them when air-commander Bumblebee gets on their tails about their technique." He said with a wicked grin spreading over his faceplate.

Sideswipe's expression matched when he caught on, and even Prowl allowed himself a smirk at the mental image.

To most of their surprise, Ratchet followed suit with a smile. "Actually, I've been thinking about that. It's the subject for another meeting altogether, but Prime and I have already discussed our desire for you to help train the aerial bots, once the crew knows about you and you can get some of your own personal practice in. I was actually hoping you could mentor them a bit. Everyone knows they have a certain guilty awe for seekers."

The medic's tone was professional enough, but his expression belied some deeper meaning to his words that Bumblebee was almost hoping he had imagined. He was distracted though by Prime addressing them again.

"Well, if you're feeling comfortable that we have covered all our bases on this plan Bumblebee, any objections to making the first meeting with the command staff later today?"

Bumblebee nibbled his bottom lip for a moment before resolving himself and shaking his head.

"Better not to put it off I suppose. Tell me a time and a place and I'll be there."

The Prime smiled warmly behind his mask, the expression reaching his optics. "Good. I think back here will be just fine, say in about, three cycles? Prowl, I'll need you to get the message out to the other officers. The rest of the plan can be scheduled after we've… settled the first meeting." he said with an anticipatory sort of reserve, and the rest nodded in understanding.

"Is there anything you wanted me to do until then sir?" Bumblebee asked as they stood and stretched their joints a little (the meeting hadn't been long, but their activities the previous night had still effected them).

"Other than take it easy, no Bumblebee, you can use the time to work out a meeting strategy if you'd like though. But you did still suffer a rather substantial amount of damage yesterday. I really don't want to go against my CMO's orders and load you up with duties at the moment."

Bumblebee smiled as Ratchet grumbled something about _damn right you'll follow my orders, if only you would when it's your own health, _which seemed to nearly draw a chuckle from the Prime.

* * *

"Ya can hang in my quarters for a while if you need to chill Bee." Jazz offered as they walked out of the meeting room and off to their respective shifts (the Twins had training with Ironhide for the next 2 cycles and would likely seek the minibot out again to help bolster him before the meeting).

"Thanks Jazz, I might come by in a cycle or so, I want to sort some stuff in my quarters first." the beetle replied calmly, but he knew the soft thrum of nervousness in his tanks would only increase within the next three cycles.

"That's cool, I'll just be filing reports." the saboteur replied with a shrug.

"For 3 cycles? How many reports do you have to go through?" Bumblebee asked with a slightly dubious tone.

Jazz grinned sheepishly. "Not a whole lot, but ya know I'm no good at it, takes me ages. I might be Prowl's long-term lover, but that don't mean it's made me any better at filing reports, that's still his field. And he won't do any for me, says the only way to get better is practice, tight slagger won't even do it for _favours_."

"I heard that." Came the tactician's voice from around the corner up ahead of them where he'd just turned on his way to go about informing the other officers of the upcoming meeting.

Jazz and Bumblebee both snickered because there was absolutely no malice in the Datsun's tone.

The Porsche and Beetle parted ways at the next corridor junction with a swift kiss before Bumblebee headed off to his shared room.

It was thankfully empty when Bumblebee got there, Cliffjumper apparently already out to whatever morning shift he had.

Bumblebee had been hoping for this. Stepping over to the locker in the corner just left of the door, he entered the combination, opened it up and pulled out a long, black, un-assuming sub-space case.

He took it over to his berth and laid it down like a precious artefact.

How long had it been since he'd even just _looked _at them? Thinking about his eventual reveal all morning had brought the memory of them back to his CPU. One of the perks of being known to the rest of the Ark as the seeker he was, was that it meant he'd be able to use them again in all likely-hood.

And it had been more than once that he'd missed them.

Bumblebee brushed absently at the few rust spots on the black metal box before he entered another number code on the case and flicked open the lid catches.

The yellow mech vented a soft sigh when he set optics on his old, specially crafted laser cannons.

They used to be mounted on his shoulders, just like the weapons of other seekers. They were smaller though, sleeker, and much nicer to look at. With smooth gold and black paint to match his old colour scheme, the lasers had a single aero-dynamic finial on the body to offer less resistance under the wings in jet mode, and atop the nozzle of each was another similar piece of metal, but shaped like a black barb.

Bumblebee couldn't help but smile, running a servo over one of his old 'stingers'. So much more accurate than the pulse rifle he'd been using for stellar cycles now, and they packed more of a punch too.

The thought that he'd finally be able to use them again helped ease his anxiety over the coming reveal.

Picking one up he scrutinised it thoughtfully. He would have to get them re-painted to match his normal yellow now. Sunstreaker could do it for him, he was sure the twin wouldn't mind. Although, he mused with a nervous smile, the front-liner might be more inclined to try and convince him to repaint _himself _to match the cannons once more.

He'd never revealed to the others, not even Sunstreaker, that he had once been a very similar shade of gold to the handsome artisan.

Bumblebee snorted. It was so long ago, and he was so far removed from the mech he had been, it was like it was a different bot's memories he held. He'd had two names, when he was a young seeker fresh to the Vos towers. Everyone but his creators had known him as 'Stinger', which made the calling of his cannons the same name seem sort of silly, though he'd never minded much. But his progenitors, both ground mechs, one a commoner, the other a wealthy noble, had always affectionately known him as Bumblebee.

Officially speaking, Stinger, the little 'prince' of Vos as he'd come to be known, had died in the vorn before the war truly broke out. The minibot's optics dimmed as he ran his black digits lightly along the barrel of one of his old weapons.

His creators had known about his issues with Sunstorm… had done their best to help, but had both been caught in a Decepticon attack before his reformatting and reported off-lining. The attack had never been put down to the 'Cons, but Bumblebee knew better. It had been one of the first air raids. He'd heard whispers in the towers… it had galvanised him into his desperate actions.

He knew his creators wouldn't have minded his choice to hide by turning himself into a grounder, but they had so loved his wings… both had worked so hard to have a sparkling that could fly the way they never could.

Just thinking about them… about the fact that Sunstorm had made him all but abandon that form they had worked so hard to give him… his optics surged and spark throbbed a little.

He took the stinger in his hand and held it to the opposite shoulder joint. Frowning, he realised he'd have to consult Ratchet about reattaching them to his triple-changer mode. His rear wheels now occupied the space they were meant to be mounted on, so they'd have to find a way of either integrating the wheels with the weapons or moving them to the other side of his shoulder, but then that would-

Bumblebee's train of thought was broken by the sound of the keypad to his quarters being used.

He swiftly stashed away the stinger and closed the lid of the case just as the door swooshed open to admit Cliffjumper.

With practiced ease that came from being a special ops agent, Bumblebee instantly schooled his features so it looked like nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

"Hey CJ."

"Hey Bee."

The other minibot considered him for a moment, but Bumblebee merely threw him a swift half smile and slid off his berth nonchalantly.

Bumblebee could tell instantly that despite his unassuming act, Cliffjumper was going to bring something up with him.

It wasn't like his room-mate was difficult to read. If Cliffjumper had a strut to pick, he would never mess about. If he was acting normally, he'd be in his own little bubble, not moving slowly and awkwardly over to his berth like he was, half full energon cube in hand, throwing the yellow beetle looks.

Apparently though, the red bot wasn't keen on the topic he wanted to talk about, because Bumblebee had to go about casually returning his sub-space case to his locker before turning to the other minibot.

"OK, spill it. What's up?"

Cliffjumper frowned at Bumblebee, who stood with his servos on his hips and an orbital ridge slightly raised.

The red mech huffed through his vents and looked Bumblebee up and down for a moment before answering.

"So what's the deal?"

"The deal with what?" Bumblebee replied blankly, trying not to sigh through his vents in exasperation.

"With you and the Seekers. What'd you do to frag them off so much?"

Bumblebee knew it wasn't meant to sound accusatory, but Cliffjumper was so paranoid about turncoats that he could rarely manage to ask anything like this without it sounding like he was suspicious of some plot.

"There is no deal. One of them knew me from a raid mission I went on to Cybertron a few years ago, and thought it would be funny to get him and his buddies to gang up on me."

The spy always hated just how easy it was for him to fabricate lies to his friends, especially given Cliffjumper would be learning the truth all too soon anyway.

Apparently, sooner than Bumblebee anticipated. Cliffjumper drained his cube, set it aside, crossed his arms over his chest plate with a deepening scowl and said "I'm not buying it."

The yellow mech's orbital ridge arched again and he moved to lean against his berth. "OK, fine, why don't you buy it?"

Bumblebee wasn't going to waste time trying to convince Cliffjumper of the truth of his supplied answer… he wouldn't insult him like that, Cliffjumper was no idiot, and what's more he seemed to have a way of seeing right through the special ops act sometimes, no matter how convincing. It probably came from living in close quarters with one for so long.

"If it was just Seekers messing around for the heck of it, you wouldn't have had your little contingent of bodyguards so worried."

"Don't call them that, they're friends, not bodyguards." Bumblebee said scowling.

Cliffjumper smirked slightly. "Yea, sure, friends… look I know you're at least fragging the twins, and Prowl and Jazz got chummy to make sure they didn't mess you up somehow-"

Bumblebee snorted derisively, something very few mechs besides Cliffjumper could make him do. "Oh sure CJ, you've got it all worked out. I totally need protecting from the Twins, Prowl and Jazz just got friendly to uphold the chastity of my spark, there's no way they could just all like hanging out with me. Pfft. How do you know I'm not fragging all four of them?"

"Oh don't start getting stupid on me Bee, I'm trying to have a serious conversation with you here."

Bumblebee let out a small 'tch' sound, leaning his servos back on the berth to support himself. The red minibot had picked his first lie, but failed to at all recognise his truth bluff. _Just goes to show how seriously he really takes me. Just like most other mechs, but at least it makes my job easier if mechs are constantly underestimating me, annoying as it can be, like right now…_

"Look, I know something is going on that you're all hushing up," the other minibot continued, " and it has to do with you and those seekers. I SAW those four charging across the battle field after those jets like they thought you were gonna be dragged into the pit. I saw you when Ratchet brought you in, you were _physically_ attacked. Seekers _never_ touch a grounder with anything more than their laser fire unless they're holding a personal grudge of some sort."

"Oh so you're an expert on Seekers now?" Bumblebee said snidely, unable to help himself, giving Cliffjumper a too cold glare. _Frag keeping him happy and frag lying, I could not be bothered with this right now, why can't he just hold it all in for once and wait a joor to find out the truth with everyone else? _

The very thought made Bumblebee's tank churn with nerves and his irate expression dulled a little.

Cliffjumpers however, did not.

"You're never usually this defensive. I know whatever's being hidden has to do with you. And don't give me any of your 'Special Ops only' slag. I've been your room-mate and your friend for how many vorns? I've let you have your secrets, I know it's all in your job, but this time… this time I'm worried, after seeing what those seekers did to you, only to have you bounce right back like it's nothing, I know something's wrong, it doesn't add up. You CAN tell me stuff you know Bee… you can TRUST me."

Bumblebee shook his helm, regret snaking into his annoyed expression.

"It's not a matter of trust Cliffjumper. I'm not going to tell you nothing is 'going on' as you put it. But right now, despite how long we've known each other, this is really just… none of your business."

"It is if you've become a seeker target." Cliffjumper said gruffly.

Bumblebee did a bit of a double take. "Sorry, What?"

The red bot's posture became stiff but his frown was resolute.

"If the Seekers are going to be targeting you in battle, anyone around you could cop the fallout. You shouldn't be in battle if you're going to endanger whatever team you're fighting with. Does Prime know about this? Or is your _privacy _worth too much to inform him of the issue that could affect several of his troops?"

Bumblebee could not believe the timing of the Decepticon attack alarm. It was both a relief and a worry. The thought of fighting right now was not appealing, but at the same time he was sure he had been about to jump up and punch Cliffjumper in the faceplate.

The red minibot shot up, threw him a look that clearly said _this isn't over_, before he grabbed his rifle and raced out of the room.

With a hard ventilation, Bumblebee straightened and grabbed his own weapon, but as he turned to follow Cliffjumper's path, he froze momentarily, eyes on his battered black sub-space container.

The decision took all of an astrosecond, and he wasn't even sure why he did it, but he hastily threw open the lid and stashed his 'stingers' into his subspace units before racing out of the room.

It wasn't like he could use them, really, but just the thought of having them with him again seemed appealing… almost calming.

Bumblebee ran through the corridors, joined by a few other mechs heading for the front entrance.

When they arrived, there were no officers, but Cliffjumper, Bluestreak, Brawn, Gears, Powerglide and Wheeljack were there, and more were likely on the way.

Wheeljack and Powerglide were jogging out into the open desert, optics on the sky as a figure came closer, trailing smoke.

As it got nearer, Bluestreak trained his sights on it, but lowered his rifle again a moment later as Skyfire's emergency hail came over their open comm. frequency.

**-hits taken, one severe, trailing fuel. Incoming Decepticon jets tailing me, hope you guys are ready on the ground, these ****'Cons are mad, I have no idea what they're here for, but Megatron and a few others are following them. **_**Primus!**_

The line crackled with a burst of static as Skyfire was forced to do some evasive aerial acrobatics to avoid enemy seeker fire.

Bumblebee hissed in sympathy, watching the approaching form dip, swoop and barrel-roll while clearly injured to avoid strafing laser fire from behind.

Bumblebee knew he should have expected it… but when the sound of those familiar engines began to reach his audios a shudder of repulsion, fear, and an anger so intense it surprised him, welled in his spark and his servos shook where they gripped his rifle tighter.

"Autobots, front and centre, we gotta cover Skyfire so he can come into land!" Wheeljack called out to those who had assembled, just as Huffer, Windcharger and Warpath arrived.

"Alright, lets, WHAM, blast those 'Cons outta the sky!"

"I thought those Seekers usually took at least two or three joors to lick their wounds, they musta bullied that medic of theirs pretty viciously to be up and about after what I heard Sides and Sunstreaker saying they did to them yesterday." Powerglide said, priming himself in a position where he could transform and take off to assist with aerial cover where necessary.

Bumblebee, running across the field behind the line they were forming, felt a pang of dread run cold through his spark.

_Primus please don__'t let him go up there alone, Sunstorm will tear him apart, then throw him to the rest of them, this shouldn't be happening, he's come after ME, and it doesn't matter that Prime and Prowl and Jazz all know, Cliffjumper is right… mechs are going to get hurt because of ME, my FRIENDS will get hurt because of me…_

"Incoming! Wait for my signal!" Wheeljack called across the field. Bumblebee took up position on the end of the line, training his sights on the horizon under the approaching form of Skyfire.

The least he could do, despite the horrible gripping fear around his spark, was try to blast the slagger out of the sky before he could land and wreak absolute havoc on anything and everything.

As soon as Skyfire's roaring, smoking engines passed overhead (low enough to shake the ground on which they stood), Wheeljack cried out "OPEN FIRE!".

Even over the sharp sounds of laser fire and plasma discharge, Bumblebee heard it. The distinct high pitched whine of his turbines… the screeching cry, at first a faint echo that then began to bounce off Mt. Saint Hilary itself the closer he got. It grew louder until the raging torrent could just be made out high over their heads as the first wave of Seekers drew close enough to open fire on them.

Bumblebee's spark pulsed wildly, rifle searching the skies for him. He could _hear _him, how could he not _see _him? Where was the fragger?

The cone heads were the first in his sights, but he only spared them a few rounds of fire before scouring the blue expanse above him with his optics again.

The sound of the golden seeker's engines was bouncing off the mountains, he couldn't pinpoint the direction of their origin. Cannon fire peppered the ground 20 feet in front of him and he fended off the second wave of seeker shots, this time from the elite trine. Why the FRAG was Starscream's lot in on this?

_Frag, FRAG, this is too soon, they want me already, away from the Autobots, before anyone here knows, before they can utilise my skills__…_

As ground troops began to get nearer, a few bots broke formation and decided to head out to meet them.

Bumblebee looked around, realising more autobots had emerged from the Ark to join them. Ironhide had arrived with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe in tow, who strangely enough didn't follow Cliffjumper, Gears, Brawn and Warpath out on their advance to greet the enemy who approached on land.

"COME OUT LITTLE STINGER! COME AND FACE YOUR DESTINY OR I SHALL DESTROY THEM ALL! I WILL RAIN PIT-FIRE DOWN UPON THESE AUTOBOTS UNTIL YOU SHOW YOURSELF TO ME! YOU CANNOT HIDE FOREVER _BUMBLEBEE_!"

Several mechs turned their heads Bumblebee's way as the bright yellow Seeker appeared, screaming around the side of the mountain and throwing laser fire after the small band of breakaway autobots who had not anticipated any of the seekers to attack from behind so soon.

It all seemed to work in sickening slow motion for Bumblebee.

He watched, horrified, as Cliffjumper and the others rose out of vehicle mode, coming to a skidding halt to turn and fire on their assailant as the glowing form of Sunstorm bore directly down towards them, screeching and cackling and howling in mad rage and delight.

Whether his decision was conscious or not, Bumblebee couldn't be sure, but he knew he heard a chorus of 'NO!' from the twins as he transformed and shot off towards the other four coming under attack.

Laser fire arced overhead, exchanged between the Decepticon Seekers and Triple changers with the Autobots on the ground still rallying into their defence patterns.

Megatron himself could be heard, apparently yelling at his entire aerial team about being insubordinate, but seemingly willing to fight anyway.

The Stunticons had come along, and somewhere from the direction of the Ark there was the sound of more mechs bellowing his name, but all Bumblebee saw was Sunstorm.

The Seeker had apparently had his minor damages seen to since the other day when Bumblebee had kicked in one of his heel cones and Sunstreaker had shot him in he back.

But Bumblebee cursed himself… he wasn't fast enough. He saw, his engine whining with fear, Cliffjumper charge towards Sunstorm, only to hit the radioactive field and skid to a halt. But Sunstorm merely laughed and shot at him nearly point-blank as he reeled from the disorientating effects of the radiation.

The red minibot's cry of pain from the shots hitting his legs was echoed by howls of rage from his companions, all of which had to duck out of the way as Sunstorm swivelled around, firing all around him and cackling like mad.

Bumblebee red lined his engine, surging forward with a wave of rage as he heard Gears shout in pain as he too was hit.

Cliffjumper, being Cliffjumper, swore and cursed and threatened Sunstorm, who turned on him with a wicked, manic grin and began to move closer to him.

"Oh, I am SO going to enjoy seeing my Sweet Bee's face when he sees what I'm going to do to you… I'm going to make an example out of you, show him what I think of this frame type he's chosen to soil himself with, and when he comes I'm going to rip it off him and stick it on you, because by the time I'm done all your own armour will have melted to nothing but cheap sla- OOF!"

Sunstorm was bowled over as a mech collided with him.

Bumblebee transformed after ramming the seeker, rolling with his inertia and leaping between the flier and his room-mate.

"B-Bee?" Cliffjumper managed to gasp out through his pained ventilations. He was beginning to bleed out over the desert, the close range shots to his legs having pierced energon lines.

Bumblebee threw a terrified but apologetic look over his shoulder before turning to face the rising form of a growling Sunstorm.

"The games are OVER my precious Stinger… submit to me, or I will destroy everything, and then I will destroy YOU."

And to emphasise his point, the towering seeker with flaming white-gold optics pointed both arm cannons at Windcharger and Warpath, both of which had surrounded him to little avail, the Stunticons coming up fast to encircle them all, cutting them off from the main contingent of Ark autobots.

Bumblebee's own optics flared white.

He had very few options here… if he didn't submit, he had no doubt Sunstorm would be true to his word… but like PIT he was giving into that maniac now.

He was too close… so close to having a freedom he hadn't felt in forever, and in his mind there was now only one logical path, no choice, and maybe he was taking the easy way out, part of him thought…

But frag it all to the Pit, he was a _seeker_, and if he was going to die today, that was how he was going to die.

"My NAME, is not STINGER. He died a long time ago. I AM BUMBLEBEE, AND I'M NEVER GOING TO SUBMIT TO YOU, YOU INSANE FRAGGING PRIMUS WANNABE!"

Bumblebee let loose the locks on his sub-space compartments, and with a tingle of relief, excitement, dread, anger… he flared his wings and ignited his main thruster, firing his engine to growl at Sunstorm in a classic show of pure Seeker aggression.

He didn't look at the other Autobots surrounding him, but he was hyper aware of the tense stillness and shock that had stilled every mech around him but Sunstorm, who sneered dangerously at the display.

"Very well, we do this your way, _Bumblebee_." He hissed, and with a growl, lunged at the minibot.

In a movement faster than any of them could track, Bumblebee fired his heel thrusters and shot straight up, opening his subspace compartments as he went.

It took all of five astroseconds to lock his stingers onto his wings before he transformed again, this time into his jet mode.

Oh PRIMUS but it was intoxicating… he wished desperately that he was not doing this in such a dire situation, because the air flowing over his frame was so very delicious and all he wanted was to spin through the sky and revel in the warmth of the sun on his plating… but behind him he heard Sunstorm's engines roaring in pursuit…

_Heh_, the mech might have the advantage over him in root mode, but in the air… not even Starscream was going to be able to keep up with him. He hadn't been the 'Prince of Vos' for nothing.

Bumblebee turned off from his vertical ascent, spinning and absorbing G-forces that would have had Powerglide spiralling out of control, but Bumblebee simply levelled out and went for it, arcing around to head past the mountain and draw Sunstorm away from his friends.

Apparently, however, he had fallen right into a trap.

The moment Bumblebee was in the air, every single seeker and triple changer was converging on him.

With a furious roar of his turbines, Bumblebee shot straight up again, dodging and spinning to avoid the laser fire peppering across his flight path as he headed for the lowest level of clouds.

Once he was high enough, he stopped his engines dead, did a graceful twirl in mid air, righting himself above a cloud, before freefalling nose down through his cover.

He ignited his thrusters again the moment he burst from the bottom of the cloud and brought his stingers online at the same time, firing straight into the form of Blitzwing, who had been stupid enough to follow directly behind him.

The triple changer cried out, his cockpit glass shattered and wing smoking, and peeled off to the side, exposing Skywarp, who had been right behind him.

Bumblebee surprised him so much one of his stinger cannons got a whole three shots into the black and purple flier's left wing before he warped away.

Bumblebee continued his steep dive, pushing faster and faster, watching out of the corner of his sensors as Sunstorm spotted him and came for him on a diagonal collision route.

Bumblebee turned towards the golden Seeker's flight path, too quick for his burst of laser fire, hearing him screech in anger as Bumblebee's now horizontal course forced Sunstorm to turn upside down and roll to straighten out, costing him speed.

Bumblebee never stopped to consider his moves… they came to him as naturally as he had never had to leave the skies. Barrel rolling, he twisted up and looped around Astrotrain, who was no where near agile enough to attempt to follow.

Starscream on the other hand, fancied his chances, and came screeching down from above, firing his cannons and engaging in what could only be described as a kind of aerial dance with Bumblebee.

They twisted around one another, trying to get a shot in without ending up in the other's firing sights.

Bumblebee could have been imagining things, but he could have sworn from Starscreams cackling that he was far from getting agitated by the deadlock manoeuvring… in fact, he seemed to be enjoying it.

To an extent, the challenge did appeal to Bumblebee's seeker nature, but his situation was too dire to truly enjoy it the way the Decepticon air commander seemed to.

He ended up leading Starscream along and nearly crashing him into Astrotrain, who's comparatively clumsy flying was turning out to be more help to Bumblebee than hindrance.

His firing of a missile in Bumblebee's direction was not however, and the yellow and black F-16 had to do a triple loop-the-loop to shake the rocket and then the strafing fire that followed, before using the momentum to spiral his way upwards and make another dive-bomb towards the space-shuttle decepticon.

From there, it took a series of gyro-boggling moves to avoid the fire of all the other decepticon fliers.

While Bumblebee's anger spurred his energy and he hit both Astrotrain and Sunstorm's green companion (he vaguely recalled the mechs name as being Acid-rain) badly enough to force them to the ground with Blitzwing, the fear was creeping back into his spark.

_I can__'t hold out forever, I can't keep this up if I run out of energy, and Sunstorm is going to offline me… I won't submit, ever, he must see it now, I revealed myself just to prove it to him, just to escape… no, to FIGHT him… Primus, this was inevitable really… as long as I can take him out before… or when he takes me out… as long as I can do that, I'll crash into him if I have to, but I can't let him walk away from this, or he'll destroy them all…_

_

* * *

  
_

**Where are the Aerialbots? He needs support up there, NOW! **Prowl hollered across the comm. systems, watching the spectacle above them with horror and dread filled optics.

He had prayed that this wouldn't happen, that the Decepticons would take too long to recover to launch an attack before the Ark was aware of Bumblebee's true identity and a contingency plan to safeguard him had been made.

But he had to admit, somewhere underneath the sheer terror he felt watching his smallest lover rise into the air and perform breathtaking manoeuvres, that he was in absolute awe of this… Seeker Bee.

He had never seen flying like it, and it made something in his spark flare with fierce pride and affection.

**We****'re coming! We're coming, we had to help Skyfire put out a fire in his hold, what's the situation like out there?**

Silverbolt's anxious vocals reached Prowl and he scowled despite himself.

**We have a single Autobot seeker being tailed by every Jet the Decepticons have brought with them, and that****'s all of them! He needs you now, get your collective afts out here!**

Prowl could almost feel the slack jawed surprise on the other end of the open comm. Even Jazz gave him a look as Silverbolt's stammered 'yes sir' was yelped back.

**Prowl, sir, not to be insubordinate, but clarification please? There are no Autobot seekers****… I shall be able to assist momentarily, my damage is minor, but what is the targeted mech's identity?**

Skyfire's confused, deep voice came over the channel as Prowl managed to break his gaze from the sky to head across the field behind Jazz, towards the four mechs still surrounded by stunned looking Stunticons.

**Mech****'s identity not important right now, he just needs aerial support immediately. The sooner you can get back in the air, the better, the trines aren't holding anything back, but do not approach the yellow and white seeker, designation Sunstorm, he emits fatal radiation.**

Prowl responded, his vocals evening to normal as he fell back into his professional mannerisms.

**Me Swoop tough Dinobot! Not scared of big nuclear yellow bot!**

Came a raspy exclamation across the comms.

**No! Swoop! I never designed you to withstand that kind of radiation, abort your attack, abort!** Wheeljack cried frantically across the line, breaking from formation to head in the same direction as Prowl and Jazz, who kept glancing up at the chaos in the sky.

It was to both their relief and regret that the cone-heads all converged on Swoop before he could even enter the main aerial fray.

It was Just as well the ground bound Decepticons were as mesmerised by the deadly mid-air ballet above them as many of the Autobots were, or they would be suffering heavier injury tolls despite the fact the Autobot ground troops outnumbered Decepticon ones.

Even Megatron himself seemed more interested in the aerial battle than the fact Prime was converging on his position.

* * *

**Bee, quit fooling around and lead them down to our level already! Do you want help or not? **

Sunstreaker's voice hollered over the comms. He was the first to address the minibot since he had leapt into the air. The open comm. seemed to snap many of the other Autobots out of their shocked or confused stupors as well, and the fight suddenly raged on the ground.

Bumblebee was too focussed on not getting hit by attacks coming in from all sides to answer, but the whistle of his engines got closer as he flipped mid air and streaked through Starscream and his wing mate's formation.

It didn't take Bumblebee long to spot the Twins as they raced towards their favourite rocky outcrop to the left of the Ark's entrance… a launching pad for many a session of Jet judo.

Starscream peeled off in some notion of heading Bumblebee off, and Sunstorm's blue trine-mate took up position with Thundercracker and a slightly smoking Skywarp, but Bumblebee pulled up sharp, looped and fired as the following jets flew beneath him.

He landed a hit on Thundercracker and the other blue seeker's wings, but Skywarp teleported, and fearing the black mech's appearance right behind him, Bumblebee threw himself into another set of gyro boggling evasive manoeuvres.

He had been right to do so, hearing Skywarp cursing at a miss-timed appearance and Starscream yelling at them for being idiots who couldn't even catch an insect of a jet.

Bumblebee, seeing the Twins had reached their critical position, put on a bust of speed, heading straight under Starscream, the other seekers back on his tail as he took a straight line low to the ground.

Bumblebee still couldn't think of anything to say over the comm. to the twins, still busy dodging rear laser fire and rockets being fired by Astrotrain from above.

He went into a spin to make it harder for the other fliers to hit him, and spotted the crouching forms of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker as he flew over them.

A moment later there were cries from Thundercracker and the other blue jet as they found themselves being latched onto and ridden rodeo style.

In the meantime, Bumblebee pulled up, only to find Starscream and Sunstorm waiting above him.

Killing his engines again, Bumblebee twisted downwards, swerving sharply and rolling once more to pull out of a dive that would have him crashing into either Astrotrain or the ground.

He felt the heat of laser fire brush over one of his tail fins and put on a burst of speed, pulling up in a diagonal arc and noticing Starscream pull across the sky to give chase.

Bumblebee was getting tired of this game… if Starscream wanted to have some fun, Bumblebee would give him a challenge alright…

"AIR COMMANDER MY AFT! YOU FLY LIKE A CARGO SHUTTLE!" the minibot cried across the air as he swooped into a feint before twisting into the opposite direction.

He mentally sniggered as he heard the shriek of outrage behind him.

Unfortunately, Starscream seemed twice as sharp when insulted, and Bumblebee found his wing sensors starting to feel boggled by the amount of times he twisted them through the air, wind dragging over him at incredible speeds.

Eventually, Bumblebee worked his way upwards before freefalling, Starscream right on his tailfins,

_That__'s right you idiot, you think I'm doing this to rest, you think you can catch me in the straight line descent, but can you catch yourself? Ha! Lets see!_

The sound of more jets momentarily distracted Bumblebee, but a quick sensor sweep told him it was just the aerialbots coming into the fray.

_Tch, nice timing guys__…_

They headed his way, and the spy suddenly realised they could easily frag up his manoeuvre.

**Stay back, I****'ve got this one. **He sent swiftly through the aerialbots comm. link, unable to articulate anything more detailed.

**You****'re going to crash Bumblebee! Pull Up, we'll cover you-**

Bumblebee actually growled through the communications line at Silverbolt, not meaning to, but unable to stifle the flare of indignation he felt being told how to fly by the essentially much younger and much less skilled concord.

**Shut-up and watch.**

Bumblebee fired his thrusters full throttle and streaked towards the ground, hearing the stunned cries of not only the aerial bots, but a few of the mechs on the ground.

He was flying right towards the Combaticons, who hollered and ran, believing he was going to crash right into them, but as he heard Starscream using all his power to catch up, Bumblebee focussed absolutely all his attention on the task at hand.

He watched his meters, intent on the exact altitude…

_100 feet__…80...50...30_

"NOW!"

Bumblebee threw himself into a spin and pulled up as sharply as he could, still firing his engine at full throttle to help pull him out of the turn and fight gravity.

He heard Starscream screech in horror, having been so intent on Bumblebee's freefalling form that he hadn't paid attention to just how close to the ground they were.

He tried to pull up completely but it was too late, and he was too heavy, the inertia sending him nosecone first, ploughing through the dirt of the desert floor.

Bumblebee heard cheers and whoops and exclamations of awe over his comm. Link from the aerialbots, and was for a moment so elated at his success at out-flying the Decepticon air commander, that he lost track of Sunstorm.

Bumblebee cried out as searing hot pain rent the tip of one of his wings and he wavered in the air, twisting away from the fire that had hit him.

The cackling golden seeker came roaring through the sky towards the aerialbots, who were forced to scatter, but the mad seeker turned on them and pursued Skydive, who's lightning decals made him stand out among his brothers.

"Aghh! Get him off! Help!"

Bumblebee felt a shiver of fear run through him as Skydive screamed, Sunstorm having changed to root mode to grab onto Skydive's wings. The minibot knew, even though the insane jet's radiation didn't affect him, that it was agony on others, and on the wings of another flier…

It did not bear processing.

With a growl of his turbines Bumblebee shot straight for the pair, not firing until he could get a clear shot at Sunstorm without hitting Skydive.

Sunstorm relinquished with a grunt of pain, one of his arm cannons getting shot off his shoulder while another shot tore open one of his side helm vents.

He changed back to jet mode and tore after Bumblebee, leaving Skydive crippled and falling out of the sky.

Fireflight and Air-raid caught their brother and took him to the ground, his wings warped by the heat of Sunstorm's radiation.

When Silverbolt and Slingshot made to chase Sunstorm and help Bumblebee, who's wing was smoking slightly and stinging like pit, the glowing seeker turned on them and began firing like mad.

Bumblebee turned and fired his own stingers at Sunstorm, who twisted away and went to ram into the lower flying Silverbolt.

"NO!"

Bumblebee went to knock Sunstorm off course, but the Decepticon jet was disrupted by a large burst of laser fire coming between him and the concord.

Bumblebee heard the sound of the shuttle's engines before he saw Skyfire, but the presence of the huge white and red flier was something of a relief…

Until Sunstorm decided to focus his attention on the newcomer instead, cackling and shooting upwards.

Skyfire was good, and older, and more experienced than even Bumblebee, but he was a different class of jet, and while manoeuvrable and quite agile in the air for his size, there was no way he could keep up with Sunstorm's assault.

Silverbolt and Slingshot had their servos full dealing with the re-appeared Astrotrain, so it was up to Bumblebee to go to Skyfires aid.

The mini-jet powered upwards and dogged Sunstorm in his attack, firing whenever Skyfire wasn't in danger of being hit as well.

Sunstorm merely screeched with insane laughter and changed to root mode again, landing on Skyfire and slamming a fist into his cockpit.

Skyfire growled in pain and rage, turbines whining with the agony as he tried to shake the golden seeker off him.

Bumblebee swooped in to try and knock Sunstorm off, but someone else beat him to it…

"Get offa him ya ugly overgrown turbo-vulture!"

Bumblebee watched, horrified, as Powerglide slammed into Sunstorm's cockpit, cracking it, going so fast he either didn't notice the radiation field or decided to ignore it.

Unfortunately for him, Sunstorm brought his flailing arms around to claw into Powerglide and latch on,

"AAAAAGGGGGHH!"

"'GLIDE, NO!"

Bumblebee chased the falling, spinning pair, watching, horrified, helpless, as Sunstorm mercilessly tore one of the red bombers wings right off and threw him from himself, flinging the detached wing in the opposite direction.

Bumblebee forgot about Sunstorm once more and tore after Powerglide to save the semi-conscious mech from a fatal crash.

But Sunstorm had come straight for him and grasped at one of his tail-fins. Bumblebee cried out and twisted, firing his tail thruster right in the jet's face, but the golden flier merely cackled.

The spy, grasping at old coding and programming, managed to send the command to his stinger cannons to about face on their mounts and fire into the mech behind him, all the while he watched in horror as Powerglide continued to fall to earth.

A wave of intense relief flooded his spark as Skyfire tore down past them in root mode, easily going fast enough to catch the other flier.

Bumblebee's rear fire hit it's mark, and he heard Sunstorm's cockpit shatter in earnest, the jet screeching in pain as stinger fire tore open a shoulder vent and pierced two smoking holes in one of his wings.

They separated and wheeled around to face one another, circling further apart in the air, the glowing seeker back in jet mode and whirring his thrusters in a menacing manner.

It was just them now.

Astrotrain and Skywarp were busy with the remaining aerialbots, Thundercracker and the other blue seeker had been grounded by the Twins, and Skyfire was racing Powerglide back to the Ark for emergency medical attention.

The cone-heads had long since abandoned the dog-fighting (after grounding Swoop) in favour of harassing the Autobot ground troops, but even if they were bothering to remain involved in Sunstorms campaign, they would have stayed out of it right now.

Both of the yellow seekers had smoking injuries, and both had lost significant amounts of power either from hard flying or draining injuries.

_But it was always going to come down to this__… HE wants me, and Megatron doesn't care, and neither does Starscream, so long as I'm not with the Autobots… dead or alive, they were always going to let Sunstorm make the decision…_

"So what is it going to be?" Bumblebee hollered across the air to the practically vibrating larger seeker, who throttled his turbines loudly in response.

"You will be mine, or your friends will die and you will be mine, either way you cannot escape me anymore, sweet-sting. If you cannot see now that it was meant to be, then I must FORCE you!"

They swirled around one another, twisting and wasting energy in a dead-lock, neither able to target the other, before falling back into a wider circling pattern.

**I am not and will never be yours! I would rather die than see you hurt any of them, and if I go I****'m taking you with me!**

Bumblebee had to speak across the seeker comm. frequency.

He heard snickering that wasn't Sunstorm answer him back and Skywarp's brash voice came through.

**You sound like you have some kinda trine to protect. You****'re all alone little fly boy, no one's gonna help you, and if you don't come with us all your little grounder friends are gonna die.**

Bumblebee refused to acknowledge Skywarp with anything more than a growl across the communication line.

**He is quite right my sweet-Bee, these mechs are not worthy of you! They have afflicted you with a filthy ground-pounder form, brainwashed you out of the sky where you belong, with me! Have you forgotten what you are, my Stinger, prince of the skies? They are unworthy!**

This time Sunstorm was projecting his voice over the general comm. line, an open communication usually used to trade insults among factions during battle, and Bumblebee quivered with rage.

Every injustice, every torturous moment he had spent getting used to his ground mode, the nightmares of never again flying, the darkest memories of being assaulted, raped, nearly having his spark tainted by the insane seeker across from him, welled up in his spark and made him fire his engine in a such a way that a low, menacing buzz travelled through the air.

**YOU drove me to that! You made me give up the sky just to escape you, and you know what? I****'m GLAD I did it! Every ONE of those ground pounders is a hundred times the mech you are, and I'd rather have my trine among them than bond to a spark as unworthy as yours! **

Bumblebee yelled across the line.

Sunstorm let out a piercing shriek of rage.

**HOW DARE YOU INSINUATE A GROUNDERS WORTH OVER MY OWN! I WILL SHOW YOU **_**BUMBLEBEE**_**, IF I CANNOT HAVE YOU, **_**NO ONE CAN! **_**LET'S SEE YOUR PRECIOUS MUD WALLOWERS SAVE YOU!**

**

* * *

  
**

Prowl and Jazz knew they had a duty to keep their private relations off the battlefield. They had already broken their own disciplines yesterday, abandoning the main fight and going after Bumblebee, and they had been damn lucky it hadn't cost anything in the main battle.

But this time they were in the thick of it, leading teams against both the Stunticons and the late arrived Combaticons.

And when the confrontation in the air spilled over into the general communication frequency, it was true they were not the only ones to ignore the battle and look up.

But along with the Twins, theirs were the most horrified faces… simultaneously they felt their joints lock and their sparks surge with icy dread.

Mirage jumped in front of Jazz and shot the advancing Dragstrip off his collision course with the stationary mech, but the saboteur barely seemed to notice.

Likewise Prowl was half tackled by Bluestreak to save him from Swindle's firing line.

"Prowl??" the gunner gasped, giving the other datsun a small shake on the shoulder and wide optic'd look of worry.

Prowl's own optics widened in horror, fixed on the sky, and he reached a servo out hopelessly with a strangled "_No!"_

It was then that the whine of jet engines really caught everyone's attention.

It was as if the whole desert was frozen in time for a moment, and all gazes were drawn irrevocably upwards by the terrible screeching cry emitted by the insane seeker.

The two yellow jets were flying right towards each other, full speed, and once in range, both let their cannons loose.

"NO!"

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe could be heard awfully clearly over the sound of Sunstorms shrieking and Bumblebee's enraged shout as neither jet swerved away.

There was a tank churning sound of metal screeching against metal as they collided, and Jazz couldn't help the devastated keen that broke from his vocaliser, sending him to his knees.

Both Jets had torn each other's plating open with close range weapons fire, and as they collided, Bumblebee had tried to scrape his undercarriage against Sunstorm's broken cockpit to send him out of control, but the golden Seeker's tail had sheered one of his own wings, sending him into a spiralling, uncontrolled descent.

The crash was hard, and far removed from the rest of the Autobots. But Bumblebee was still online, and he had had the satisfaction of seeing Sunstorm going down in flames, his damage worse.

* * *

Bumblebee tried to right himself… his immediate elation at having so viciously disabled the mech who had hurt him so much draining very quickly as all the warnings in his HUD lit up and the pain hit him.

He gasped and collapsed onto his back, servos shaking and seizing up slightly from the excruciating wounds making themselves known.

The sheered wing had been nearly torn away as he had transformed and hit the ground in root mode.

The stinger cannon on that wing had broken off somewhere, and the other wing was badly scraped and slightly warped. Not to mention the laser burns on both wings, and the gouges torn into his chassis. He was bleeding out, but only very slowly. No major lines had been ruptured, but his remaining stinger was offline due to some kind of control line break.

One of his shoulders was miss-aligned at the joint as well, and made a horrible grinding noise when he tried to move it.

With a groan, Bumblebee decided to wait for help. He knew they had seen him go down, he knew Ratchet would make sure to get to him, or Wheeljack would fetch him for the medic…

He did not expect the whining ventilations or angry screeches of an approaching, flaming jet.

Bumblebee twisted on the ground, wincing, his spark filling with absolute and horrified dread as Sunstorm limped across the desert towards him, optics white and ablaze with insane fury.

Bumblebee struggled in earnest to drag himself backwards out of the furrow he'd created in his crash landing.

But there was no way, with pain shooting through every limb with every small movement, that he was going to be able to escape the approaching, alit, and maddened jet.

It was… honestly quite the sight to behold. Sunstorm was apparently quite impervious to the flames rising from his damaged but still intact wings (intact but full of holes from Bumblebee's stingers).

If the minibot didn't know the truth about the mech's insanity and absolute cruel selfishness, he might actually believe he was some Primus deigned deity… but a god of the pit rather than some immaculate image of perfection as the seeker had always claimed himself to be.

Defiant to the golden monster to the end, Bumblebee growled and kicked his working leg out at the towering form as it approached. But absolute terror was welling in his spark as he looked straight into the blazing white optics.

Something in Sunstorm had snapped. All his sanity had finally left him, and now he looked ready to either strike the killing blow, or…

Bumblebee shuddered… he knew what else that look meant. Sunstorm seemed ready to claim him, though it seemed ludicrous to think Sunstorm would be ready to rape him again in their current conditions, he wouldn't put anything past the crazy fragger… which only intensified his fear.

Sunstorm sunk down to the desert floor, his injuries making the spy wonder how he'd even managed to walk as far as he had, but it seemed his heel thrusters had gotten him part of the way and he'd avoided a crash as hard as Bumblebee's after all.

"_Mine… forever…you are mine…" _He was rasping his insane litany as he crawled over the minibot's form, ignoring or batting away Bumblebee's kicking leg and clawing hands.

"Get OFF me you crazy FRAGGER! HNNGAAAAAH!"

Bumblebee cried out, cringing away and trying to shield himself from the burning heat of the flaming body above him as Sunstorm settled his knees over the smaller jet's legs and pinned his servos down with one hand, digits on his other servo reaching to bite down into the chassis beneath him, the insane hunger clear in his optics.

Bumblebee writhed and screamed as Sunstorm tore into his chest plating, feeling disgustingly helpless and overwhelmed by the pain.

"_Open for me, my precious love… you will be MINE, FOREVER MINE!"_

Bumblebee cried out and gasped, chocking on a whimper as the jet ripped open the last of his chest armour, revealing his spark.

He watched in absolute terror, whole body wracked with tremors, as with a reverent but vicious hunger, Sunstorm lowered a servo towards his open chest plate.

He keened in agony as a golden digit made contact… the pain was deeper than any of his injuries… he felt keenly as if he had just betrayed Prowl and Jazz… even the Twins… he hadn't even bared his spark to them, hadn't spoken of it yet though he'd been wanting to… and here he was, his very core lain open to the mech who had ruined his former life, and at the contact point memories were triggered, flowing forth to the other seeker out of his control.

He knew he had no control over this, but the betrayal was evident nonetheless and strong in his spark. Memories and feelings flickered over to Sunstorm, who's damaged turbines whirred sickeningly above him.

The heat was actually beginning to hurt Bumblebee's spark, the smell of burning energon and oil filling his olfactory sensors until he shut them down.

He cringed, keening weakly in pain and off lining his optics. He tried to writhe away from the contact, but Sunstorm broke it himself with a growl.

"All these useless memories of THEM! How could you, my prince??? How could you _soil _yourself with them? The disgrace, the indignity, they are FILTHY and you let them have you like some cheap pleasure drone??? No more! NO, my sweet-sting, once you are mine, I will _cleanse _you of them…"

* * *

"CALL HIM OFF, MEGATRON!" Optimus boomed as they neared the crash sight where the golden seeker was towering over the smaller form of Bumblebee.

The maddened seeker was flaming and had somehow increased the power of his radiation field so that it was near impossible to get anywhere within 20 feet of the mech without plating starting to warp.

"Why would I do that Prime? This is a private matter that pre-dates even our war, it is not my _business _to intervene!" the Decepticon leader crowed smugly.

He was not prepared for the vicious response he would get from the grossly enraged Prime as they witnessed the flaming seeker invading the smaller jet's spark with his touch.

"CALL. Him. OFF." Optimus growled dangerously after smashing Megatron around the head, pulling one of his arms behind him and locking a large blue servo around his throat.

Megatron merely gave a strangled, dark chuckle as he struggled in the Prime's grip.

"You honestly think he'll listen to me? We weren't even supposed to attack today, but that unstable fool just wouldn't wait, and the rest of my troops didn't take much convincing to go another round for vengeances sake."

The sound of more Autobots following the two leaders greeted them as tires scratched across the dirt and transformation sequences where heard.

"BUMBLEBEE!"

Prowl and Jazz had been released like a pair of angry hounds by their subordinates, Mirage and Bluestreak taking over their attack fronts and urging them to go and help Prime and Bee.

As it was, they felt utterly helpless… they couldn't get anywhere near the flaming form of Sunstorm, and Bumblebees cries of agony as his spark was assaulted by the radiation cut the to their very cores.

The sound of more mechs approaching didn't draw their attention, but Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were livid as they transformed and hurled abuse at the crazed golden seeker.

Wheeljack, silent as he transformed next to the Twins, was the only one there who had a hope of helping the minibot, and he knew it…

But he had never seen anything so… so horrific, so terrifying, and as he watched, Sunstorm loomed over his mauled prey, the shattered cockpit splitting slowly, and panels ground against one another as the larger seeker bore his own spark with a manic glint in his optics.

Bumblebee's keens of pain turned to louder cries of fear and protest.

Wheeljack couldn't allow this… not if he could help it, and Ratchet had warned him about this, had told him to prepare some kind of end-game strategy to destroy the radioactive seeker, but… he had never factored in this kind of scenario, the proximity of the Decepticon to Bumblebee, his small friend's spark exposed and in imminent danger of being either permanently violated or snuffed out altogether in an agonising manner.

"Wheeljack! Come on, we need to DO something!" Sideswipe nearly howled at his side, his voice more desperate and pleading than he'd ever heard it.

Wheeljack keened, shaking, watching Bumblebee try and fight Sunstorm off, but he was too damaged, to weakened…

"I… I can't, I can't fire the necessary missile, I might hit Bumblebee!"

"Give it to me." Sunstreaker ground out.

"W-what? But-"

"Just give me the damn launcher Wheeljack, there's no time!" The golden twin snarled, a desperation to his tone that was only ever there if Sideswipe was in mortal danger.

"What if you hit Bumblebee???" Wheeljack keened desperately, handing over the small radioactive-resistant rocket and the bazooka like launcher.

"I won't." Sunstreaker said, and his tone was so absolute, Wheeljack could only hope to believe him.

* * *

"Do not fight me Bumblebee, or you will perish. Come to the light, become one with me, bond to me, the way it was always meant to be!"

"NO!" Bumblebee gasped and cried out as Sunstorm got lower, raking a servo down the smaller jets most damaged wing as the spy shielded his own spark as best as he could.

Bumblebee whimpered as another flare of radiation burnt at his core. His plating and internals were impervious to the radiation, but apparently his spark was not without the protection of his armour.

"You will be forever in Primus' favour my little prince, why do you fight it? How can you refuse? You WILL bond with ME!"

The Jet tore Bumblebee's arm away from where it shielded his core, and lowered himself with a rapturous expression.

Bumblebee felt his vocaliser seize up completely as he saw the flaming golden spark, like a small supernova, descending towards his own bright blue orb.

He was shaking like mad, knowing that the moment that spark touched his own, he would be consumed by the mad fire that was the insane seeker above him, and he would never submit to it… refusing to bond would kill him, and maybe it would kill Sunstorm too, because he would not back off if he thought he could force it.

It was going to be the most painful death he could imagine, and the only thing that went through his mind was the agony of losing his future with Jazz and Prowl and the Twins…

_No, please, Primus, what did I DO?_

The chassis above him suddenly reeled back from the force of an explosive hit to his back.

Sunstorm screamed and threw back his helm, fixing the culprit with an enraged glare.

Sunstreaker growled right back. Lining up for another shot at the now exposed spark of the seeker, having just blown the plating off the top of his wings with a glancing shot.

Bumblebee wasn't quite sure what seized him in that moment…

But the repulsive seeker's spark was right there, in front of him, and it was his only chance.

Bumblebee lashed out, thrusting his working servo into the parted cockpit, seizing the flaming golden orb and crushing it in his small, scratched black servo.

The moment he'd done it, he wished he hadn't. His own scream was drowned out by the unholy shriek that came from the still blazing seeker as he jerked and spasmed.

Bumblebee felt liquid fire shooting through his frame from his servo, a thousand memories and emotions, all overwhelmed by a consuming heat and madness and chaos contained within the creature above him, flowed through the small mechs body. Bumblebee's processor reeled, but he felt the life-force in his servo break and shatter in his grasp, suffocated. Ultimately, it imploded and expanded on a sub-atomic level, the shock of the abrupt destruction of Sunstorm draining all strength from Bumblebee.

He went limp as the flaming corpse collapsed on him.

His CPU was spinning and his servo felt as if he'd touched the surface of an electric powered sun. Memories, horrible and wonderful and terrifying and gruesome, all the emotions that went with them, none of them his, flitted disjointedly through his meta, dissipating gradually as the codes terminated with the life-force they had been attached to.

Bumblebee realised after a moment that there was a rather loud noise disturbing him… and then a moment later he realised it was his own vocaliser, and he was crying out in pain. He could barely move, and the radiation from the greying, heavy, burning body pressing down on him still seared at his exposed spark.

His other injuries seemed twice as painful now as well, and he couldn't have stopped his vocalisations now if he wanted to.

Over them, he heard frantic voices, felt the reverberation of huge metallic feet getting closer, and after about half a klik (that seemed like an eternity to him) the hot, dead weight above him was lifted and tossed aside.

Bumblebee hadn't realised his optics had shorted out until there were voices above him and he couldn't see the mechs in question.

He felt a servo grasp his own and thought he recognised the tapered, careful digits of Prowl, while he could hear Jazz panting a soft litany of "It's OK Bee, you're gonna be OK, we're gonna get ya to Ratchet." As he tried to carefully shut some of Bumblebee's panelling over his exposed spark.

By the time Bumblebee felt two large, careful servos scrooping him up, his cries had dulled to weak whimpers, and he half offlined as he was carried across the desert by a huge mech he couldn't identify until he spoke.

"Please, Bumblebee, it is not yet your time to join the Matrix, stay with us."

Bumblebee could not answer, and the jarring motions to his horrendously damaged and sensitive wings sent him fully into stasis as he was raced back to the Ark and Ratchet's awaiting care.


	3. Chapter 3

_Yea yea, blah blah, updates take forever from me._

_Make no mistake i am actually working on ALL my fics, whether physically or just mentally (as in the case of Legacy), but progress is slow because my graduation semester of uni is kinda critical and important so longer waits, sorry, you'll just have to suck it up._

_That said, i promised shorter chaps and more frequent updates, but looks like ai suck at shorter chaps, so it's same-old same-old here with a standard 11,000 something words._

_And like... not even as much happens as I was planning, but i think you'll like it anyway._

_Oh yea there's some smut, but nothing of great detail im afraid, sorry XD_

_Yea i'll shut-up so you can read now cause i cant think if i meant to say anything else here XD_

_Oh, except this story has maybe one or two more chaps to go before its finished but yea .; That could change, idk._

_OH, ALSO, YOU HAVE LAURA, TV AND RIVIAN TO THANK FOR ALL THE SEEKERY, AERIALBOTY AWESOMENESS. My gestalt is love.  
_

_~Death Out  
_

* * *

The flaming seeker came towards him, and he couldn't move… he hurt all over and he was completely immobile, chest plates torn open, spark bare, and he could do nothing to defend himself.

"_Mine, I will have you, I will take you, forever, forever mine, it is meant to be, it is destiny__"_

The insane litany from the golden, flaming, mutilated jet seemed to ring right through his CPU as the pain of radiation throbbed through his exposed core. He tried to cry out, but his vocaliser failed him, and he trembled in horrified fear as Sunstorm bore down on his prone form, bearing his own blazing spark, lowering himself, claws digging into Bumblebee's wings, agony shooting through his sensor net.

_Stop, no please! Don__'__t do this, Primus please what did I do? Stop, stop, it hurts, primus please STOP!_

Bumblebee's vocaliser came online again as the insane, flaming golden seeker's spark met his own and he screamed in agony.

"HOIST, I NEED THAT ANAESTHETIC ADMINISTERED NOW! His spark isn't strong enough to withstand the sensory barrage from all the damage yet! He's going to go into critical shock-"

"Ratch I've got the clamps, starting on the line damage now… _Primus _half his spark casing is slagging melted…"

"I know Wheeljack, I'm working on it…Perceptor, keep an optic on those readings, make sure the spark-pulse doesn't drop below 20 per klik, if it does, ready the static pads."

"Shhhh, It's OK Bumblebee, it's OK, we'll get you fixed up, you just go into stasis now and we'll do the rest…"

Bumblebee focused on the cool, well spoken vocals of Hoist as the mech inserted a line into one of his primary medical ports that initiated his shut-down protocols. He heard himself whimper as though from a long way away, the pain all consuming and Hoist's masked and visored features swam unclearly before his optics. He dimly felt one of the structural engineer-cum-nurse's servos stroking soothingly over his helm crest, and then everything went black and fuzzy and he stopped processing.

* * *

The twins sat in a corner, helm to helm, leaning into each other's sides with identical shell-shocked expressions the likes of which had only ever been seen on them when one or the other was half slagged and in the med-bay under Ratchet's tender ministrations.

After First Aid had quickly patched up the worst of their jet judo injuries, they'd been kicked out and told to go refuel (and they would have argued had the bot ordering this not been Swoop, who it was futile to argue with). They had contemplated grabbing some cubes and holing up in their quarters until word of Bumblebee's condition reached them. But neither could quite bear the thought of being isolated with their anxiety.

So they sat in a corner with two full cubes, unable to drink anything while their tanks roiled with worry. They silently exchanged reassurances through their bond, and after about half a cycle they were glad they had stayed in the commissary, even if they talked to no one and none dared approach them.

Jazz and Prowl entered, the latter's door-wings drooped lower than they'd ever remembered seeing and the former's visor only glowing dimly.

They spotted Sunstreaker and Sideswipe and made a b-line right for them, the Lamborghinis instantly moving to accommodate them both at their booth.

Sideswipe slung an arm over Jazz's shoulder as he slumped in the seat with a sigh of his vents. Sunstreaker shuffled close enough to Prowl to keep their plating in contact as he sat beside him and rubbed his faceplate wearily.

None of the four paid the rest of the common room any mind, even as a hush fell over the present mechs. It wasn't just so much the surprise that Sunstreaker had just expressed what was for him a great show of affection towards the second in command, it was also the fact that the four of them seemed to have _known_… other than them, the only other mechs who had seemed completely un-shocked by Bumblebee turning into a Jet had been Ratchet and Optimus Prime… both of which it figured would know. But even then, their own leader and chief medic had kept something _huge _from all of them for years… all except Prowl, Jazz and the Twins, or at least that's what it looked like.

The most distressed about the yellow minibot other than the four huddled in the corner were Bluestreak and Wheeljack, and the engineer was one of the mechs trying to save the small triple-changers life, which left a rather distressed looking Bluestreak at a loss for what to do with himself.

Normally he would be in Jazz or Prowl's place right now, drawing on the comfort of the tough-liners and their seemingly endless well of strength and reassurance in the face of critical injuries and tense situations.

But when he'd walked in and seen the looks on their faceplates… it only scared him more, to see the lost, helpless gazes on the two bots who'd always been HIS strength. He also wasn't sure they would take well to him in that sort of state… certainly not when he had so many questions he wanted to ask them.

In fact much of the common room's inhabitants seemed to want to ask the same questions. The room buzzed again with chatter, and many a furtive glance was thrown over to the corner, but no bot dared approach.

The two officers and the Twins were in no doubt the questions would come though. As soon as Bumblebee's condition was known either way, everyone would want to know. Little did any of them realise they had been so close to finding out anyway… but the 'Cons had come before they even had a chance to reveal the truth. They hadn't even gotten to the officers meeting.

"At least everyone should know from this that there's no question Bee's an Autobot." Sideswipe mumbled, to nodded agreement from Jazz, who's helm was resting on his palms as he stared with unfocussed optics on the table.

"More of an Autobot than anyone in this room." Sunstreaker intoned firmly, throwing a pointed look at the minibots sitting huddled nearby, eavesdropping on them.

Huffer and Brawn frowned and looked away, but their expressions held no malice. Windcharger immediately engaged them in conversation.

"Unfortunately, the trust issues now are going to be inevitable. It isn't fair on Bumblebee that it came out this way." Jazz muttered sombrely.

Prowl sighed, nodding in agreement. Sunstreaker gave the SIC a critical gaze before shoving his full cube in his direction.

Prowl gave him a slightly confused look, and the golden twin merely cocked the side of his mouth in a mirthless half grin. "I know what you're like. You need to make sure you stay online more than I do, it's more important you're there for Bee first." the toughliner said softly.

Prowl actually gave him a weak smile and a quiet thanks before picking up the energon and taking a small sip. It was clear though that his tanks were in no more of a state to take fuel than the Twins were.

The four sat quietly, occasionally exchanging a few comforting words or gestures, ending up sharing the cubes between them all. A slow trickle of mechs who had been repaired were filling up the common room, no one leaving, no one wanting to miss any news on the one bot that they had just fought a battle over. None of those fresh from the med-bay knew anything further about their smallest triple changer's condition, but that didn't stop their comrades bombarding them with enquiries and sharing theories and opinions on the matter with them.

It wasn't until the tired and slouching figure of Wheeljack entered that any sort of real prospect of news became tangible.

The rec. room on the whole paused and turned to watch the chief engineer (who seemed to not notice he was still flecked with energon and oil… which made Prowl flinch when he realised _who's _energon and oil it had to have been ), walking across to the energon dispenser, apparently oblivious to his silent and awaiting audience.

It wasn't until he'd filled a cube and turned to leave that he noticed all optics on the room on him.

It was a testament to how hard he'd been working and truly tired he was that his helm panels barely flickered a dull blue.

"Uuuuhm… Oh." Seemed to be all he could come up with on the spot.

"'Jack? He's… gonna be OK, ain't he?" Jazz's vocals broke the tense anticipative silence, and many gazes flickered over to him instead of Wheeljack… it was the most anxious they'd ever heard the saboteur.

"Oh… Oh, yea, yea, um… Bee is stable… for now. It's looking like he'll pull through, but it's gonna be a long recovery."

The restarting of held ventilations caused a great sigh throughout the room, and Wheeljack's helm fins only flickered a little brighter as a buzz started up, mechs now converging to bombard him with questions.

The poor Lancia was overwhelmed and obviously too exhausted from the marathon of cycles spent working on his small friend trying to keep him online.

It took Sunstreaker and Sideswipe stepping in to stem the flood, and they helped Wheeljack escape wordlessly, glaring at anyone who dared approach to ward them off. With the look on their face-plates, no one dared oppose.

Jazz moved around and slid an arm around Prowl's shoulders. The normally publicly closed off and always calm mech had buried his face-plate in his servos and his whole frame shook, door wings clattering dully where they lay low on his back. Jazz just lay his helm against the tactician's and offlined his visor, forcing his ventilations to be deep and even.

"He's gonna be OK Prowler… he's gonna pull through, it'll be alright…"

The whispered litany was as much to convince his himself as his lover.

It wasn't too long before Sunstreaker and Sideswipe returned, both sliding back into the seats on Jazz's other side.

The air about them wasn't urgent, but even without turning his head to them when his optics onlined, the saboteur could tell they had something to say.

They waited for Prowl to stop trembling and emerge from his servos, looking drained and tired.

"Wheeljack told us Optimus is coming to help us tell the rest of the crew what the deal is."

Jazz's gaze flickered to Sideswipe and he nodded after a moment.

Prowl made an effort to compose himself before looking up at the two. "Did he mention how much Optimus wants us to tell them? After all this was… all a rather personal matter for Bumblebee."

The twins both shook their helms.

"Knowing Optimus he'll probably keep it to the bare minimum of facts needed to understand the situation. Bee was onlined a seeker, Sunstorm got obsessed with him, the Decepticons rose, he went into hiding to escape the stalker-bot and the 'Cons and the only mechs on the Ark that knew till yesterday were Ratchet and Prime. Easy. And if they don't believe it they can go suck slag." Sunstreaker said succinctly with a shrug. It seemed like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders once he'd heard the minibot was stable.

"Ya don't seem too worried about him anymore." Jazz said with a tone of confusion rather than accusation.

"Heh, I've got experience with Seekers remember. I've slagged those 'Con jets to the pit so many times and the fraggers keep managing to bounce back. I don't think Bumblebee will have any problem." The golden twin replied reassuringly.

"Yea, and not to mention me and Sunny have had enough spark casing trauma between us to know that even just stable is good news. Bumblebee will pull through, you know what he's like." Sideswipe added, brushing his plating against Jazz's in another comforting gesture.

Jazz and Prowl both had to admit the twins reassurance was working.

They managed to finish their cubes before Optimus entered the rec. room, heading in their direction.

"Wheeljack tells me he relayed my plans to you. Do you feel comfortable with assisting me in breaking the truth to the rest of the crew?"

All four of them nodded and stood to flank him when they moved to the elevated platform off in the corner. It was where Optimus or the other officers usually stood for a crew-wide address, or where, during lighter events, Jazz and Blaster would set up their sound systems.

The Prime did not even need to call for attention. All mechs optics had been on him the moment he walked into the room, and silence certainly didn't take long to settle. No one wanted to miss a word once they figured they were going to get answers.

"I realise you're all very confused about what you witnessed today. First of all, let me make one thing exceptionally clear. Whatever your opinions of Bumblebee before or after this incident, there is absolutely no doubt that he is very much an Autobot, just like the rest of you. I will hear no arguments against this, do I make myself clear?"

He paused to watch the nods of assent, however confused or reluctant some of them might be, before he continued.

"Now, to explain what you've all seen today… Bumblebee was not, as you all thought, created an ordinary minibot. He was in fact a mini-Seeker. His re-formatting into a triple changer happened not all that long before he joined the Autobots, and would not have happened at all if not for one mech."

Prime's optics surged angrily as his voice took on a deeper emotion, speaking of the mech who had caused all this chaos in the first place. "Sunstorm, as I'm sure any of you who have faced him will know, was never an entirely sane mech. Not even before the war, according to Bumblebee. The main problem was, just before the war, when Megatron had only begun recruiting, Bumblebee was a popular mech in Vos. He was known to every inhabitant of the city as 'Stinger'."

There were one or two gasps around the room… Prowl noticed two of those who seemed to recognise the name were Bluestreak and Skyfire. Optimus continued with his dark tone, and the tactician knew he was suppressing a lot of anger on Bumblebees behalf retelling his history.

"Bumblebee at that time became friendly with Sunstorm. He used to act a lot more normally, before the war worsened whatever glitches he had in his programming. Unfortunately, it was too late before Bumblebee realised there was something wrong with the other Seeker and tried to disengage with him. Sunstorm was obsessive and dangerous, and what was more he had other seekers on his side who had already joined Megatron's following. Had Bumblebee not taken desperate measures to hide himself, Sunstrom would have forced him to bond, and possibly done other damages to him in his crazed delusions.'

'What you must understand is Bumblebee is the ONLY mini-Seeker ever recorded to exist on Cybertron. Simply changing his paint and designation would not work. To hide himself, he found Ratchet… who helped him reformat himself completely. He acquired a ground mode and had extensive modifications installed to hide all traces of his Seeker mode. Major parts of his seeker programming had to be made dormant as well. Unless you are a flight model yourself, I do not think you could comprehend the difficulty of all this… it was absolutely drastic action, but it was necessary to escape detection by Sunstorm and any number of Megatron's growing forces. Bumblebee had always been reluctant to join the Decepticons when his peers pressured him. And I have no doubt in the end Megatron himself would have sought to force him to choose, and likely deactivate him if he continued to refuse."

Those listening who's faceplates had shown clear doubtfulness at the beginning, had all started to seem more and more unsure of their convictions and opinions. Many had started sharing startled glances, and Jazz knew there were new questions forming in their processors.

"Obviously, it was not possible for Bumblebee to show his seeker form in public, lest he be discovered again. And once he had adjusted to his new life, Ratchet recommended he join the Autobots. They were both completely upfront with me from the beginning, but we all agreed, even once Bumblebee was well integrated into the Autobot ranks, there was no way he could show his original form given all other seekers had turned to the Decepticons. It was both easier and harder to keep it a secret, and he has done so commendably, up until today."

"So, that battle before today… when the seekers carried Bee off…" It was Bluestreak who spoke, with clear, dreaded trepidation at whatever answer he may receive.

Optimus, having not been present at the actual events where the Seekers had taken the minibot, turned to Prowl and Jazz on his right.

Prowl's door wings flickered up slightly, his professional air making something of a return despite his emotional state.

"From what we've gathered, the Seekers had been talking amongst themselves since the added trine from Cybertron arrived on earth. Previously Sunstorm had no reason to take notice of ground mechs, but as we all know, since warring on earth, fights have become much more close quarters and personal. Starscream and his wing mates know perfectly well who Bumblebee is, and once Sunstorm actually took time out to look, he recognised him."

Jazz stepped up to allay the still anxious looking Bluestreaks fears, knowing where his processor had gone, drawing conclusions.

"Don' worry Blue. The only thing they did ta hurt 'im was tear up his platin' a bit. We got there and slagged the suckers before they got any fancy ideas."

"So how come you all knew then, huh? You four, how long have you all been privy to this super big secret?" The gruff, affronted vocals of Ironhide came from where he was leaning against the wall scowling.

Sunstreaker scowled just as effectively back and spoke up before any of the others could answer.

"Don't get your diodes in a bunch old bot, we only found out yesterday. We had a meeting only about a cycle or so before the attack today planning on how to break it to the whole Ark seeing as the Decepticons were all going to find out from Screamer anyway. But then that fragging flaming pit-slagger attacked before we could even do that."

Ironhide was so taken aback by the bitterness in Sunstreakers tone he didn't even retort, instead looking slightly abashed and apologetic.

"So why the heck did Sunstorm wanna bond to Bee in the first place? He just have some kinda minibot kink?" The question this time came from Trailbreaker.

"No, it was based mainly in the fact that Bumblebee, as you may have noticed from today's dogfight, was the only mech completely immune to the radiation Sunstorm produced. It is something to do with the alloy used to create his modified Seeker frame." Optimus replied evenly.

"I still don't get why he felt he could tell you four before anyone else. What makes you all so special huh? Doesn't he trust the rest of us? Or is that friendliness all just a front too? He thinks the rest of us minibots are below him huh?" Cliffjumpers tone was unmistakeably bitter, and both Prowl and Jazz could tell his anger sounded more than anything like a cover for how hurt he felt. He was, after all, Bumblebee's room-mate and had been since the yellow mech joined the Autobots.

Before either the SIC or TIC could answer though, Sideswipe snorted and crossed his arms, drawing attention to himself.

"Well, apart from the fact we half saw his wings when those harpy-bots first attacked him, I thought it was kinda obvious by now that we're a unit."

The silence and flash of brightening optics that passed through the room was actually quite impressive.

Sunstreaker scowled beside his twin and looked around. Sideswipe's orbital ridges had shot up… even Jazz and Prowl were looking at him a little surprised.

"What?… Oh come on, don't tell me none of you noticed? I know we were trying to be subtle, but you can't tell me we were succeeding all that well, that kinda stuff never goes un-gossiped about."

All he got in response was the same shocked silence and dumbfounded looks.

Until Bluestreak, looking a little more confused than everyone else, piped up.

"So, wait… 'Sides, do you mean you're a unit as in a team? Or, unit as in… y'know, _that way…_"

Sideswipe canted his helm slightly, and replied with a dead serious expression.

"We, the five of us (he gestured his finger in a circle, denoting his brother, Jazz, Prowl and the absent Bumblebee) are a Unit, _in that way. _The old way. As in _involved."_

"Primus' pearly pedes, you ain't jokin' are ya?" Ironhide broke the awkward silence that had followed Sideswipe's confession.

Prowl buried his faceplate in a servo with some sort of mumbled oath against the red twin and Jazz's mouth quirked into the hint of a smile.

"Well, no, but I don't think we or Bee were really expectin' it to come out quite like that, 'Sides."

Sideswipe threw the saboteur an apologetic look.

"Seriously, no one had even guessed?" Sunstreaker said incredulously.

"Well, to be fair, units haven't been heard of since the Golden Age. And in a time of war, I am guessing most mechs would assume it wasn't done, given the chances of a painful loss of one member could compromise more than one mech. I think most bots don't like to assume something so presumptuous." Optimus said gently, a tiny smile forming behind his mask. He had, after all, apparently been one of the very few mechs who had suspected it.

"All the same… that doesn't explain why he couldn't have told me. I never gave him any reason not to trust me. Here I thought we were close… mech was I ever _wrong._" Cliffjumper muttered darkly, audible in the quiet room as he crossed his own arms over his chest and scowled.

"Now Don't go feelin' betrayed Cliffjumper. He trusted all of us, an' he didn't even tell the mechs he was involved with until we kinda saw it with our own optics. How do ya suppose he'da brought THAT up?" Jazz shook his helm. "Apart from anythin' CJ, with yer track record holdin' certain traits against a mech as bein' purely Decepticon, I can see why he decided not to tell ya. He Didn't tell _any _mech that didn't explicitly need ta know. Wasn't about trust, it was just safer." The Porsche shrugged, diffusing the tense air a little more.

The next question to pop up though, cut through the thickness of the air like a knife.

"So…. Wait, PROWL has been FRAGGING the TWINS?"

Everyone turned to look at Huffer, some with quite horrified expressions.

Prowl emerged from his servo with a stony grimace, shooting a cold look at Huffer before glancing sideways at the smirking twins. Sunstreaker looked about to say something when Prowl pointed at them both and growled "Not. A. Word."

It was at this point Jazz lost his control and broke down laughing, which served to completely destroy any residual uneasiness that the whole reveal had caused.

Optimus was unable to hold back from chuckling with him.

"Well, you certainly have your priorities straight, Huffer" said a deadpan Tracks.

* * *

Consciousness was slow in returning when Bumblebee finally began to online. His systems were reluctant and sluggish, opposing his return to the waking world but really unable to protest given he'd had enough recharge for his body to settle back into a good functional rhythm.

At first his audio receivers began to relay information. There were other mechs nearby in the room, and their voices were both familiar and reassuring. He let his memory cache steadily review through his CPU before anything else.

_Yes… I DID face off Sunstorm… and Primus, I did do a Kamikaze run… and I… I… his spark…_

He couldn't help the soft whine that left his vocaliser as he attempted to boot up his optics.

They were as slow as everything else, but once they focussed, he was well aware the voices had gone quiet, and their owners were leant over him. Jazz and Prowl's faceplates hovered over him, smiling.

He felt a servo gently touch his helm and stroke a horn soothingly and he groaned.

"Wh-…what the slag did I do?"

"Other than give us all a spark attack and Wheeljack the chance to work on a Seeker frame the way he always wanted? Nothing much." Came Ratchet's gruff voice from somewhere to his left before the medics faceplates also swam into his still adjusting view.

The look on the medics faceplate was completely opposite to his tone however. He seemed tired and relieved, still with that undertone of concern.

"Ya did slag yerself up pretty good Bee." Jazz said quietly. The yellow mech could tell he'd been as worried and tired as the medic, and likely, so had Prowl, who was still stroking his helm.

"I… extinguished him, didn't I?" The small mech asked softly, sounding almost afraid of the answer.

"It was that, or have a forced bond that could have irreversibly damaged your spark." The tactician said softly.

"Or have your spark irreversibly damaged from exposure to that radiation while fighting him off… or be killed by it. Don't feel guilty Bumblebee, you didn't have a choice." Ratchet reassured him.

"Couldn' a bared to lose ya to that maniac… you did the right thing Bee, don't be beating yourself up for it." Bumblebee could hear the pain under-toning Jazz's words, and he realised just how close it must have been.

He tried to move experimentally, gasping as sharp pain shot through his backstrut when he did.

"Ah, no… don't try moving just yet Bee. We spent so long just stabilising your spark and re-building the damaged casing and other slagged core components, we haven't quite gotten to the rest of you yet. Just lie still, I'll get you some more pain killers."

Bumblebee did as he was told, but he tried to angle his helm to look down at himself. His tanks lurched when he saw that half his plating was still removed, large patches of static bandage the only thing between his inner workings and the rest of the world. A small shiver of panic from an old programme flashed through his CPU and he couldn't help the whine that escaped him when he realised his wings were totally slagged.

If he hadn't had so much experience being a ground mech, he would have gone into a full blown panic attack right then and there. But he was still hard pressed with his seeker coding online to swallow the sick distress that came from his self diagnostics reporting how useless his precious wings were at the moment.

Jazz joined Prowl with another hand on the smaller mechs helm to soothe him, urging him to lay his helm back again and relax.

"It's alright Bee. Ratchet will have you back together in no time, just rest and relax."

Bumblebee had to admit Prowl's cool, melodic vocals always did wonders to calm him down.

"Jus' ventilate slow, Bee. Ratchet told us what ta expect with yer programming, you're gonna be fine an' flyin' in no time."

Bumblebee managed the flicker of a smile at his lovers for their efforts. He was impressed that they had adapted to his changes within such a short space of time… Primus they knew just what to say, even when he knew neither had any experience with flying models before.

Ratchet had come back and hooked up the pain killers, which had a sedative effect. As Bumblebee fell into a painless haze of comfort under the combined efforts of Prowl and Jazz, he mumbled out an "I love you guys…" before falling back into the nice fuzzy warmth of stasis.

* * *

It was another Orn before Bumblebee's internal damage was completely fixed, and four more joors after that to have his plating back to normal.

When Ratchet released him from Medbay (Or more, very nearly literally kicked him out. The only thing having stopped him being the far too well perfected turbo-puppy optics the seeker had given him), Bumblebee had gone into hiding. Optimus had already spoken to him, and told him he could return to normal duties when he felt ready.

Right now, while he would have loved to have gone right back to how things were, he just couldn't handle facing the rest of the crew.

It wasn't at all that he hadn't tried… He'd been making his way to the entrance to get some fresh air with Jazz and Prowl as soon as he left the Med-bay. They had come across several mechs who had returned from patrol to the shift change. Bumblebee had smiled, happy to see them all looking well.

Brawn, Cliffjumper, Smokescreen, Huffer, Grapple and Windcharger had all given him looks ranging from blank dispassion to outright glares or disappointed frowns.

Bumblebee had turned right around and gone to Jazz and Prowls room, and he hadn't left since except to switch to the Twins room or sneak into the rec. room for energon at night, all via the air-ducts. He would only tuck his Seeker plating into his specially crafted subspace sections to do this, otherwise he wore it out constantly, re-adjusting to the extra kibble once more.

By the fifth joor of Bumblebee's self confinement, even Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were trying to encourage him back out into the open.

"You just have to ignore them Bee. Who gives a frag what any of those slag-heads think? You're still the same bot, that's what matters. Unh… ooooh there…"

Bumblebee revved his turbines and sped up his pace bouncing on the toughliner's spike.

"I know… you're good at igno- OOOH!… ignoring it, S-Sunny… but I c- NNNNH! Just can't do that."

The minibot's wings twitched with every squeeze of Sunstreakers servos on his thighs.

The other thing that he hadn't quite anticipated after letting his Seeker programming settle back in was the interface drive. It had been doubled from his normal amorous level to being horny nearly half the day, everyday. And a little more… aggressive about it than usual.

Of course, none of his lovers had any trouble keeping up with him… so long as they worked like a tag team.

"I Thought you Seekers were supposed to be more arrogant than my brother… hard though that may be. Didn't think what any mech else thought would bother you." Sideswipe snickered behind Bumblebee where he was languidly pumping into his brother and running his glossa over the minijet's cockpit glass now and then.

The golden twin's response was a loud warning growl from his engine, but the three didn't speak again until Sideswipe and Sunstreaker both wrapped their servos around Bumblebee's spike together and the three overloaded.

"Mmmmm I love the way your wings quiver when you come." Sunstreaker murmured deeply as the three of them lay collapsed on Sideswipe's berth. Bumblebee's engine purred loudly as the gold mechs digits stroked one of his wings softly.

"For mechs so used to slagging jets, you sure as pit know how to treat one properly." Bumblebee mirred, nuzzling the two chassis beneath him. He was sprawled out on their chests, finally sated after three overloads in a row.

"Mmmmm, we know the sensitive spots, what we do to them is the difference." Sideswipe said, grinning and stroking a helm horn.

"Anyway… you should come out. If nothing else, I want to show you off. 'Course I'll have to wax you first, do some detailing to get rid of the scuff marks and paint scratches." Sunstreaker said haughtily.

His red twin pouted at him. "Nooooo, don't take away my warm jet blanket, it's miiiiine."

Both Twins jumped slightly at the sudden explosive rev from Bumblebee's engine and turbines, and his servos gripped the top edges of their chassis armour firmly.

"_Mine_."

The two Lamborghinis gave him a startled look. His optics had darkened and his wings were flared. It seemed to take him a moment to snap out of this odd mood. When he did, his wings relaxed and flapped slowly, optics blinkering a little, apparently in surprise at himself.

"Oh… sorry. Ugh, Seeker programming can be nuts sometimes."

The twins shared a look again. "Uuuuh…. So what nuts part was that coming back then?" Sideswipe asked, a little concerned.

"Oh, just interface protocols. Breeding rights and stuff, jets are possessive of their claims. Don't worry, I'm not in heat though."

"Breeding… Claims… wait, what? You just… claimed us? What the frag? What does THAT mean?"

Sunstreaker asked with clear confusion.

Bumblebee shrugged mildly. "Nothing that serious, just means I might get a bit possessive if I see some other bot trying to move in on you. Or if it's another flier, I'll just have to dominate them."

The casual way in which this was said reminded both toughliners just why they'd always thought jets were mad in the first place. Sideswipe pouted some more.

"So, if you've claimed us, that means we can't frag anyone else?"

"Oh, no, you can frag whoever you want, if it's you're choice to move in on them. Its only if some-bot else tries to move in on you that my programming will kick in." The beetle-jet replied calmly, wings flickering and nuzzling both mechs plating affectionately.

"Hmmm. I think I can live with that." Sunstreaker said with a grin.

"Oh, personal Jet spike blocker, cool. Have to make sure you're around at the next party where Tracks gets overcharged… anyway, if for no other reason, you should ignore everyone else so you can go flying. I thought Jets were obsessed with flying? And I wanna see you up there again, so I can turn to whoever else is watching and say 'I hit that'." Sideswipe said slyly.

Bumblebee giggled, engines purring, and poked the red chest-plate. "You mean, you're going to say, 'That hit me'."

Sunstreaker laughed as the two began arguing until Bumblebee's 'claiming' instincts kicked in again and he pinned Sideswipe to the berth to go for a fourth round, Sunstreaker happy to move when Bumblebee directed him, taking his brother's spike while the mini-jet fragged the red twin senseless.

* * *

A similar session with Jazz and Prowl the next day saw Bumblebee finally too exhausted to argue, and he agreed to come out of hiding. If for no other reason than he wanted to fly again, especially since Ratchet had given the green light for that only a joor after he left med-bay.

The minibot discovered, once he started roaming the corridors, that there were at least a few mechs happy to see him again.

Wheeljack acted like nothing was different, and Bluestreak was also very friendly, if not a little obvious with his staring. But with the re-emergence of Bumblebee's seeker programming, he found he didn't at all mind this… in fact, it felt kinda _good._

While he didn't return to duties right away, he did hang out with the few bots who treated him normally, glad when they stuck up for him against others who were either openly glaring or whispering pointedly. And the more support other bots were showing for the beetle, the less others held their prejudices. Especially given any theories of him being a well ingrained Decepticon spy were falling very flat with the continued lack of attack or general 'Con activity.

By the third day out, Bumblebee was wondering if he shouldn't be going everywhere via the air vents again, but for a different reason.

"Have either of you noticed my entourage?" He asked Jazz and Blaster as they walked languidly towards the comms. room for the two to start their shifts.

Blaster glanced behind them briefly and Jazz chuckled.

"Yea, they've been tailing ya since they found out you were out of hidin'." The saboteur said mildly as the triple changer flicked his wings, both slightly irritated and a little flattered.

"What's up with that, cat? Ya got yerself some stalker jets." Blaster asked bemusedly.

Bumblebee shrugged. "I think they're back on that little Seeker obsession thing. They were fans of the head trine until they got duped by them. I don't think they ever lost that little obsession though, but it's a flier thing. I wouldn't mind it's just… I want to go flying alone for a bit, and I think if I try with them around they'll tag along and get in the way."

"So that's why you ain't been out yet? Aw well why didn't you say Bee? I'll get Silverbolt to take them all for ground target practice, that'll keep 'em out of your way for a bit."

Jazz said, brushing his digits briefly down a wing, making it flap slightly and the yellow mech beam up at him.

"Yea, do ya mind an audience though? Cause I'd dig a glimpse at those wings o' yours in action, I missed it the first time around, and from what I was told your skills are outta sight!"

Bumblebee was about to tell Blaster he was more than welcome to watch when something else caught his attention completely and he stopped dead in his tracks.

At the end of the corridor, Powerglide had just come around the corner. The red bomber had also stopped dead upon spotting the triple changer seeker.

They sized each other briefly before it started.

"Uuuh, what's the beef mech?" Blaster said, confused and looking apprehensive, digits hovering near his eject button in case some kind of fight broke out for whatever reason.

Jazz moved around behind Bee and put his servo on the tape deck's shoulder, shaking his helm.

"Ah, no, we don't wanna get involved in this one Blast-man. Ratch told us somethin' like this might go down. It's a flier thing, gotta let 'em work it out between 'em."

Bumblebee fired up his thrusters threateningly, flaring his wings and growling deep from his engine.

Powerglide had been slightly bigger than him when he had kept his Seeker mode hidden, but with his extra plating, he now matched the red plane, and even looked a little bigger due to his wingspan.

The other flier didn't back down at his threatening display though. Powerglide glared and growled from his own powerful turbines, vibrating the wings that lay along his sides so that they clattered like an overgrown red rattlesnake.

The posturing got a little fiercer, including hissing, but when neither mech backed down, it elevated further.

Powerglide lunged for Bumblebee, and the two started scuffling.

It was less a brawl than a wrestling match, each bot trying to get on top of the other to pin them down. In truth, despite Powerglide playing dirty by slapping at Bumblebee's wings, it didn't take long for the mini-seeker to top the bomber and stick a knee between his shoulder joints.

Even with his faceplates pressed into the floor, Powerglide hissed and growled, thrashing to try and topple Bumblebee off him, but it was clear from the triple changer's technique he was practiced in whatever kind of fight this was. He growled warningly at the red mech beneath him, but when the other flier didn't yield, he pressed his weight further and bit down on the tip of one of the other's wings.

This seemed to be enough to subdue the plane. He yowled and stopped thrashing. There was silence, and Bumblebee had to bite a little harder before he got the warble of submission.

This done, he released Powerglide completely and walked back towards Jazz and Blaster like nothing had happened, wings swishing serenely.

Powerglide, recognising the not looking back jet was dismissing him, went back the way he came. He'd have to go to the rec. room the long way.

Blaster looked Bumblebee over apprehensively as he returned to them, and Jazz had to poke the tape-deck to get him moving towards the comms. room again.

"So… what the SLAG just happened?"

Bumblebee rubbed the back of his helm a little sheepishly as Jazz just beamed.

"Oh, just sorting out rank… flier thing, worse in Jets like me though. I knew it was going to happen sometime, just kinda hoped I could… organise something so it wasn't so random."

"Bee's dominant over Powerglide now. See, if there's any question about who's in charge when they're all workin' together in the air, things can get real nasty, real fast. Had Skyfire explain it to me, so I wouldn' be freaked when Bee started doin' stuff like attacking other fliers on base. It's a bit like Cyber-Wolves, ya dig?"

Blaster seemed to slowly absorb and decipher the information, looking quite a bit more relieved when he saw the logic in it.

"Well I'll be slagged, so whatcha gonna do when ya see Skyfire? That's a smack down I don't think I wanna miss."

Bumblebee actually looked nervous at that possibility. "I'm… not entirely sure. Except of the fact Ratchet's probably going to be cross with both of us. Skyfire's size usually makes him automatically dominant, but because I'm a _seeker,_ we're naturally dominant over any other form of flier. Given the size differences though… yea, it might be a longer match than that one just was."

"Heh, mind me spreadin' the word and takin' some wagers on that one?" Blaster asked eagerly.

Bumblebee shrugged. "Guess not, just don't let Prowl know".

* * *

As it turned out, Bumblebee managed to cross paths with Skyfire the moment he got to the common room. The only other mechs there were Wheeljack, the Twins, Hound, Mirage and of course, Powerglide.

Both the engineer and the toughliners knew about Bumblebee's programming and backed off a few paces. Wheeljack's helm fins flashed a nervous peach, but Sideswipe and Sunstreaker looked almost excited. Powerglide however, tried to look invisible in the corner of the room. Hound and Mirage didn't even notice until the noises began.

As it was, nothing really happened. Bumblebee paused and stood at his full height, wings flared…coming up to just above the shuttle's knees.

Skyfire looked intensely down at the minijet, flaring his wings and standing still as a rock. He gave off a deep threatening growl from his engines, but Bumblebee was not at all phased. He stood his ground and gunned his own turbines in response. They then spent two tense Kliks in tense silence, sizing each other up, flexing wings and staring each other down.

The Twins looked edgy, waiting for something to escalate, while Wheeljack stopped Hound or Mirage from interfering.

Eventually though, Skyfire grumbled deeply and flicked his wings in some sort of grudging looking dismissal. Bee flicked his own wings in response and gave a loud whirr.

And that was it. They went back to their own business, Skyfire turning back to his conversation with Wheeljack.

The Twins followed after the little yellow triple changer as he got himself some energon.

"So what was that? Blaster only just took bets on this, no one even had a chance to put credits on you… NOT fighting each other." Sideswipe said with a pout.

Bumblebee flickered his wings in amusement and turned to find a seat.

"So, who DID win? What secret jet signals decided that match?" Sunstreaker pushed with a frown.

Bumblebee smiled slightly and shrugged before flumping down on the couch.

"No one."

"NO one?" The twins echoed in confusion.

"Well… both of us… sort of. We broke even. No point fighting, at least, not right now."

"Uuuuh… not right now? So then… when?" Sunstreaker asked with a frown. He was so used to the method of sorting issues out when they arose rather than dancing around until something happened, he couldn't quite reconcile the flier's ways.

The mini-Seeker took a swig of his cube and leant an elbow on the table, resting his head on his servo.

"Most likely when one or the other of us is in heat. I don't know when that might be. Could be within the decacycle, could be in a vorn or two. Unless we have something that either of our programming demands we fight for, we'll be even rank. Shared leadership isn't really common in fliers but it's not unheard of."

"Ssssooooooo… bets still stand until one of you starts wanting to frag the same mechs?" Sideswipe asked eagerly, grinning.

Bumblebee shot him back a small smirk over his cube, wings fluttering in amusement. "I guess so."

Sunstreaker gave him a wicked grin, raising two digits to the side of his helm near his audio.

"Hey Blaster."

There was the soft buzz of the open channel before the tape deck responded on the toughliners audible line.

"_What's up my mech?"_

"Ten credits says Wheeljack will be the mech Bee and Skyfire fight over when the jets come into heat."

The golden twin's wicked grin only widened when Bumblebee snorted and made a motion like rolling his optics

Blaster chuckled. _"You cats know somethin' I don't?"_

From beside Bumblebee, Sideswipe piped up eagerly to be heard over the open channel.

"My ten's on it being one of the aerial bots!"

The three of them laughed when there was a squeak, and turning, they saw Fireflight flail and fall on his front outside the doorframe before scrabbling up and disappearing down the hall.

"I'm not sure if that was excitement or fear at the prospect of you chasing their ailerons." Suntstreaker mused.

The mini-seeker dragged a servo down his faceplate. "Who's to say they won't be the ones after MY ailerons? You've never seen jets in heat."

* * *

It wasn't until the afternoon that, true to his word, Jazz was able to get the Aerialbots involved in ground combat practice so they would not be able to continue stalking the resident seeker.

Bumblebee finally felt the tangible thrill of true freedom beckoning again as he walked to the entrance of the ark, the Porsche and Tape-deck in tow.

He stood for a moment outside just savouring the air and the beautiful afternoon, before he revved his turbines and flexed his wings. Jazz and Blaster stood at the entrance patiently, watching the afternoon sun catch the gold and blue striped black wings in front of them, before Bumblebee leapt into the air and transformed.

Nothing… _nothing _compared to this feeling.

The air pressing up beneath his wings as he climbed, taking him higher, his main turbine powering him forward.

He soared upwards in a high arc, flaring his tactile sensors, spark singing at the feeling of the wind caressing every inch of his plating as he flew ever higher.

He didn't stop his wide upward spiral until he breeched the first layer of clouds, where he levelled out.

_Primus _but it was beautiful up here… he knew he'd thought so the only other two times he'd been able to fly on earth. Those moments were like precious jewels in his memories… and a thrill of exhaultant happiness shivered through his frame when he realised there was no limit now to how much he could appreciate this…

He really was free now. No more fear, no more lies, no more hiding…

_Free…_

Bumblebee couldn't contain the pulsing of his spark, and it went straight to his turbines.

He rolled and dived, dipping back beneath the sparse clouds and pulling up sharply to feel the pressure of g-forces trying to drag him back down, only to gun his thrusters harder and break from gravity's hold.

There was nothing like this, _nothing _that could compare, and he knew that after this, there was no way in the Well or the Pit that he could ever give it up again. He Didn't even quite know how he'd given it up in the first place.

He barrel rolled and loop the looped and dived, climbed, twisted and bolted back across the sky, purely for the pleasure of the thrill.

And quite suddenly, he felt an intense pang in his spark.

_If only Jazz and Prowl could feel this… if they could come up here with me, join me… Primus almighty but that can't ever happen, they aren't…_

And suddenly the thrill was a burning aching desire.

His turbines gave a loud mournful whine and he dove, twisting and pulling up in a slow ascent line, his core crying out for something it could never have, seeker programming flaring wide open and leaving him with the ventilation stopping realisation that he was a _seeker without a trine_…

And he always would be, even if he loved the two black and white mechs, even if he bonded with them… _they could never share the sky with him._

Blaster was gone by the time Bumblebee finally came down, and the sun was just about set. Jazz didn't say anything when he saw the yellow and black mech's faceplate. He'd noticed the change in the small bot's flying while he watched… it had started out so beautiful, until an odd change had come over the seeker, and suddenly there was a fierce sort of desperation, and from there it had looked like all the jet wanted to do was wear himself out.

Bumblebee flickered the Porsche a small, sad looking smile when Jazz wordlessly brushed a wing in a gesture of comfort, but he let the triple changer go. He knew when a bot needed thinking space. And he knew if it was something important, Bumblebee would share it eventually.

* * *

A while later, Bumblebee lay on his own berth… back in his old room, the one he shared with Cliffjumper. The other minibot knew he was there, and was avoiding him still, but at the moment, he didn't care.

Since his flight, he couldn't shift that ache that had settled in his spark.

He mulled it over in his processor constantly, trying to reconcile the problem.

He WOULD need a trine… he didn't doubt that, but he didn't WANT any mechs other than Jazz and Prowl.

It was just not fair… Primus, before he'd had to change, he'd not been at all concerned with trines. He hadn't been mature enough to care, but so very many vorns had passed, and he was a mature mech now… an adult seeker, despite the fact he'd had to suppress that part of him for so long. And trines were a much, much bigger deal to his programming… to HIM… he wanted that, he wanted the connection, the relationship, the bond. His spark was yearning for it terribly, but it was very uncommon for seekers to create trine links with ground mechs. As much as he loved them dearly, they would never fully understand what he was.

The lure of other jets on base was not enough to sway him to seek any as possible partners though. Apart from anything, the Aerialbots were a gestalt, and while they hadn't been a very common occurrence when he himself was created, he knew enough about them now to know they weren't able to bond outside of their brotherhood anyway. And Skyfire, whilst a very attractive prospect, was not who his spark sang for…

And Powerglide?

Bumblebee laughed mirthlessly out loud. He'd barely been able to stand the mech even before his Seeker programming re-asserted itself. Certainly not worthy mate material, even if he wasn't already in love with grounders.

It took another cycle of hard processing for Bumblebee to work through his problems. By the end of it, he felt mentally and emotionally exhausted, but he thought he might have an answer… he was too determined to make it work to let their inability to fly with him be a true deterrent or obstacle.

He headed out towards the rec. room. He knew it would be packed at this hour, most day shift mechs having finished several breems ago, but he didn't really care about the looks he still got anymore.

When he walked in, a lot of the chatter died down. He acted as if he didn't notice, acknowledging those who were still friendly towards him as they waved, and smiling when Wheeljack caught his optic and indicated for him to sit at his table when he had gotten himself a cube.

Bumblebee didn't even get to the dispenser however, before his progress was halted by a harshly barked comment.

"So our illustrious seeker has deigned to grace us with his presence at last."

Bumblebee wanted to keep walking. He really did. But given the snide voice was Cliffjumpers, he couldn't quite help but stop and turn to face him.

The angry scowl on the other minibot's face told him his room-mate was still bitter about not knowing about his true identity for the whole time they'd bunked in the same quarters.

"What do you want from me CJ? An apology for being created a seeker?" The yellow and black bot said evenly, wings tense and slightly arched on his back in a defensive posture.

Cliffjumper sneered, and the look from him was surprisingly hurtful as he stood to face off the winged mech now slightly taller than himself, where before Bumblebee had been the smallest.

"How 'bout an explanation about your trust issues? If you're a true Autobot, why couldn't you have told anybody else? You think we'd sell you out to the 'Cons huh?"

Bumblebee's engine growled faintly and his wings twitched. Cliffjumper ignored the signs.

"Or is it that you didn't want any of us knowing 'cause it made it easier to collaborate with your other little seeker friends? You surprised they sold you out to that old psycho frag-buddy of your- ACKK!"

Bumblebee's turbines whirred with the flare of his temper, and before he even knew he'd sent any motion commands, he had Cliffjumper pressed against the wall with his arm across the red mech's throat tubing, pressing only hard enough to shut the mech up.

The hurt, and anger, and injustice had overwhelmed him so easily. He wasn't doing this anymore. He wasn't going to sit around waiting for his previous friends and comrades to stop thinking so badly of him for something he'd never asked for, never been able to help.

They had NO idea… so he figured he'd better give them one.

"You know WHY I never told you 'Jumper? Because I didn't tell ANY mech. I know how this place works. You tell someone you trust something secret, and they tell someone they would swear would never spread it, who then tells someone else they'd swear would never spread it, and THAT'S how stuff moves around here. I trust every mech in this room with my life out in the field. I do NOT trust more than a handful of you to keep a secret though. I'm special Ops for a _reason_. And information that threatens my life isn't worth risking just to keep you feeling content in our friendship."

Bee pushed off the stunned red mech, wings hiked high and twitching with stress and emotion.

"And Don't you DARE talk to me about trust. When did I EVER give the impression I gave a SLAG about the other seekers? What indication that I would ever get involved with Decepticons have I ever given anyone here?"

The mini jet swivelled on the spot, staring down the mechs who had been hostile to him since he'd come out of the medbay.

"None of you know what I went through to hide what I was. None of you. But I swear if one more mech questions my loyalty to the Autobots, I will take you up a couple thousand feet and drop you, and then you might get something of an idea of what having to lose your wings and your whole known world is like."

With a huff, wings trembling and turbines buzzing angrily, Bumblebee stormed out of the room, forgetting to get his energon, not really caring, heading towards the Ark entrance and leaving a completely silent rec. room in his wake.

* * *

No one spoke, and Cliffjumper looked particularly shell shocked.

The fact that Bumblebee had never gotten physical with him in anger was something he was keenly aware of.

In fact, the enormity of the triple-changers outburst seemed to have hit every mech in the room in a similar fashion. Sure, they'd seen Bumblebee angry before, heard him shout, seen him hurt once or twice… but not like that. He'd never reacted like a cornered animal, or _really _come out and spoken his mind so blatantly. He'd also never threatened anyone like that.

"I hope those of you who were holding onto your stupid little prejudices have opened your audio receivers now. If he does decide to drop one or two of you afts on your helms, I won't be stopping him."

Ratchet appeared in the doorway, Bumblebee not having stopped or acknowledged him as he swept from the rec. room looking like his spark was broken.

The medic glared around the room at the most sheepish looking occupants.

"That bot nearly went mad when he had to go into hiding. I didn't reformat him, stay with him for countless cycles keeping him sane and watch him turn into a different mech just for you lot to take his sacrifices for granted. and YOU…" The CMO turned his iresome glare on Cliffjumper, who seemed to snap out of his dumbstruck trance only to cower under the intense gaze of the medic.

"You'd do well to remember that you were the bait to lure him out, and it worked, because he cared enough about you to break cover and save your aft. He got slagged out there to keep that crazy aft 'Con off you all. I also didn't bring him back from the brink of off lining to have you lot take everything he's done for you for granted, so it's about time you all activated your memory banks and started treating him as the mech he is, not the mech you want to THINK he is."

No one in the room spoke or challenged Ratchet. The air of shame and regret told the medic that there would unlikely be anymore incidents of bias against their resident Seeker.

That, however, didn't help the mini-jet right now.

But Ratchet wasn't worried. He'd already nodded gratefully to Skyfire, who'd stood to leave, the CMO that he was going to go after Bumblebee.

* * *

Skyfire knew the small mech was notoriously hard to find when he didn't want to be, despite his bright yellow paint job.

But he, being a fellow flier, had read all the signs the rest of the mechs in that room had missed. Bumblebee had been slightly troubled even before he was accosted by Cliffjumper. His wings had given him away.

And clearly, the confrontation hadn't at all helped his initial problem, because his emotions had come through those wings loud and clear for the whole thing. The small jet was terribly upset, and Skyfire couldn't sit back and let him get chased off without trying to console his comrade.

He stepped out into the cool night, looking around and listening intently.

The air was silent… filled only with the chirp of crickets and rustling of small mammals, which meant Bee hadn't taken off, because jet turbines would be heard for miles on a night like this. The wildlife would have silenced for a while from being disturbed, too.

The shuttle couldn't see the smaller flier though, when he looked around, but he had an idea of where he would be. After all, he had extensive experience with seekers. Some things were just embedded in that frame type's coding.

Like brooding in high places…

The red and white mech began climbing the side of Mount Hillary up a well worn path. The path ended about halfway up, but with his size it wasn't hard to scale the rest of the way. He could see the glint of moonlight on the black wings above him. Just as he'd expected, Bumblebee was sitting up on the rim of the dead volcano.

The smaller mech's faceplate remained buried in his servos even as Skyfire reached the lip of the crater and sat by him.

The shuttle didn't say a word, looking out across the dark horizon. He waited for Bumblebee, knowing he'd speak when he was ready.

That was another thing about Seekers. No matter how much they tried to bottle things up, they would always speak to SOMEONE about it eventually.

"Have I really changed so much?"

The quietly spoken question brought Skyfire's gaze down from the stars.

The silver faceplate shone in the moonlight with deeply etched emotion… sad and anxious and unsure all at once, and it struck him as very much not the Bumblebee the large mech was used to. Certainly not the mech who had come up even to him in vossian rank.

The white helm cocked curiously to the side. "Why, do YOU think you've changed?"

The mini-jet shot him a sideways glance of uncertainty.

"I… I don't feel all THAT different, but when there's so many bots treating me like they don't know me I… maybe I just don't see it."

The shuttle shook his helm and fluttered his wings. "It really isn't you. I mean, your seeker programming has made a few small changes, but given it was your _original _coding, its more like you're turning _back _into the mech you were before we knew you. If other mechs aren't wrapping their processors around it, it isn't your fault. They have no reason to hate you, they're just judging you on circumstance. I know it's hard, but… they came to trust me. I'm sure they'll do the same for you."

Bumblebee finally really looked up at him, a gleam of hope in his light aqua optics.

"I hope so."

They sat in silence for another few breems, looking up at the stars.

The steady swish of wings was a comforting, communal gesture, and the only communication between them until the large shuttle suddenly began twitching his wings very deliberately with a small smirk on his faceplate.

Bumblebee's helm whipped around and he scrutinised the movements, optics flashing back to the huge mech's faceplate once more.

"…That was NOT just my name in vossian."

Skyfire chuckled and repeated, giving the small jet a mischievous grin.

Bumblebee shook his helm and snickered good naturedly back at him.

"_No…_ that really _isn't _my name in vossian. Primus, its been how many thousands of decacycles for me and even MY pronunciation isn't THAT poor." To emphasise his point, the mini-seeker made precise wing movements as he spoke, dictating everything he said in the flyer based language of his old home city.

Skyfire chuckled and shook his helm, bowing his wings in acknowledgement of his defeat.

"Oh, well, surely it's the thought that counts?"

Bumblebee laughed softly as well.

"Yea, it is. But I am going to have to give you a refresher course."

"Speaking of courses… Ratchet has been talking to me today. He is keen on suggesting to you the idea of intensive flight training sessions for the aerialbots… I'm sure you're very well aware of their current skill level."

"Or lack thereof?" Bumblebee intoned with an amused smile.

"Now you ARE just being a seeker. You know they aren't that bad." The shuttle admonished, flicking the triple changer on the shoulder.

The yellow and black mech acknowledged and made an apologetic flicker with his wings.

"Yea, I know… but Primus, do you have ANY idea how frustrating it's been watching them mess around without training this WHOLE TIME and not being able to get up there and whip them into shape?"

Skyfire burst out laughing, the sound echoing down the side of the volcano and pleasantly shattering the quiet.

"Oh… My, I can imagine. I felt the same way in the science labs when I first came. I wanted to get involved in so many projects, but I daren't overstep my bounds until I was sure they were comfortable with my input. At least I got to a point where they accepted me and my scientific opinions… I suppose your predicament would have driven me mad though, if I thought those bots would even listen to me that is."

"Oh they better listen. Those jets don't even know what their wings can do yet, but once I'm through with them the 'cons won't be making jokes behind their servos anymore." The beetle said with a gleam in his optics the shuttle wasn't used to seeing.

The effect of his impressive statement however was slightly ruined when undercut by a loud gurgle from his tanks. Bumblebee's faceplate pulled into a grimace and he rubbed his midriff.

But Skyfire merely smiled knowingly. He had not come unprepared.

"Ah yes… I made sure to swipe you a cube before I came out. I figured you'd gone in there in the first place for that reason."

The small jet smiled at him gratefully, accepting the cube and drinking half of it in one go with a satisfied ex-vent. "Thanks… I let my reserves get way too low, I keep forgetting how much power turbines chew when they're online."

"And they would have chewed a fair amount given that show you put on this afternoon." the red and white flier said matter-of-factly, having pulled out the rest of his own cube to finish.

"Oh, you saw that too? I knew Blaster and Jazz watched, but I didn't really look to see if anyone else did." Bumblebee said curiously, looking sideways to catch a dubious expression on the shuttles faceplate. "What?"

Skyfire grinned impishly. "A seeker that DOESN'T check if it has an audience? You really are a special breed of your own aren't you?"

The shuttle chuckled loudly again as Bumblebee swatted him and gave him an affronted look and a rude gesture with his wings. "As a matter of fact I AM a special breed, and I DON'T have an ego twice the size of my own wingspan thanks very much."

"That's just as well then, I suppose, because there were several of us… Primus only knows what that would have done to a less humble jet's ego." Skyfire said nonchalantly, sipping his cube and pretending to become interested in the stars again.

He counted the astroseconds.

"So… who WAS there?" The beetle piped up curiously.

Less than ten, more than five. Skyfire was mildly impressed, but jets WERE still predictable.

"Well, let's see… Perceptor and I had come out to gather some soil samples for an experiment and we stopped to watch for a while. When we got there, Bluestreak and Ironhide were watching with Jazz and Blaster, and when we left Mirage and Hound were just coming out of the Ark and I'm sure they watched for while. I have to say, I was very tempted to get up there with you, but Jazz informed me you'd wanted some alone time to re-acquaint your wings with the air, which I completely understand."

Bumblebee grinned widely.

"Thanks. In the future though, feel free to join me. It was mostly the Aerialbots I didn't want getting in the way. I'm sure you noticed them stalking me, I didn't dare try getting into the air until I was sure they weren't going to follow me up and start fooling around in the way."

"That's fair enough. Usually they're well behaved around me, but I know what excitable jets are like. I'd chose to fly with a wailing sparkling in my hold rather than to try and get some free flight time with fliers behaving LIKE sparklings zooming around me."

Bumblebee snickered. "What about MECHS behaving like sparklings in your hold?"

Skyfire groaned. "Yea, that's just part of the job description now."

The two laughed and chatted a little more, and by the time Bumblebee returned to the Ark and settled himself on top of the already recharging Prowl and Jazz (who automatically threw arms around him, only partly roused from recharge), he felt a whole lot better about life on the Ark as a Triple changer.


	4. Chapter 4

_ It's been so long I dont even remember what happened in the last chapter really. Bwaaaaah nevermind, you'll like this anyway, it's loooooong, as is usual for my chapter style._  
_Ummmm so i woke up with this massive headache and my brain is refusing to work so i'm just going to go ahead and skip to the bit where you aren't even reading this anyway and leave you be to read._

_Oh, but y'know, just a warning, READING THIS CHAPTER IN PRIVACY IS RECOMMENDED. SERIOUSLY, IF YOU GO TO SCHOOL, DON'T READ THIS ON A SCHOOL COMPUTER. YOU REALLY DONT WANT PEOPLE LOOKING OVER YOUR SHOULDER FOR THE LAST HALF._

_Other than that, this story is dedicated to kaitie ^.^ And much of the Aerial heat protocol and characterisation is inspired by and credited to my gestalt mates, most notably Laura, TV and Eels._

_And damnit i spend too much time on AIM because I keep accidentally pressing shift+enter here when I only need to press enter to go down XD_

_But yea, enjoy the chapter n shit, i'm also slowly updating my other ones, so please stop fretting, they haven't died, i'm just not as focussed at churning out their new chapters. Animation Masters degrees ain't a walk in the park y'know._

_I've also realised I make several grammar mistakes that may annoy people. Deal with it, I know they're there, i'm too lazy to fix them, at least I know what they are._

Also, if you have it, use the TRON soundtrack for a few parts in this. Yes, I wrote the whole sparring thing to Derezzed XD

_~Death out._

* * *

"Come on guys, keep up, this is a training exercise not a joy flight!"

There was a whine of turbines throttling up and the five other jets came level with Bumblebee again as they peeled over the desert in a wide circuit.

"Ok, now you all remember your sub-divisions for the Crosshatch? Timing is crucial, no slacking on this one or you can do each other some serious damage, and Ratchet will have MY hide, not yours."

"I thought Ratchet asked you to train us?" Fireflight piped up a little breathlessly.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean he won't tear strips off me if I mess you all up on the first new manoeuvres I try to teach you. Alright guys, on my mark… ready… break!"

Silverbolt led Slingshot and Air Raid to the left, Bumblebee veering right and followed by Fireflight and Skydive.

So far, the aerial bots as a group were doing better than Bumblebee expected. He'd had to assert dominance over Silverbolt before they could even begin, unfortunately, but his radiation proof plating also covered electrical shock interference. Silverbolt's main weapon was nigh on useless against the triple changer, and a few well placed hits and some bites to the wings had assured Bumblebee a swift victory.

After that of course, the rest of the gestalt (barring Slingshot, who despite his overt insolence seemed to genuinely respect Bumblebee anyway) had followed his every instruction with little problem.

He'd managed to tighten their synchronisation, which wasn't hard given they could simply tap into the Superion spark-pulse frequency and act like a single mech when necessary.

All he'd had to do was give them some framework for better close flight formation and some tips on how not to crash into one another or make themselves an easier target in the process.

They had the basics covered, but this was the most difficult group manoeuvre Bumblebee had tried them with so far.

He led Fireflight and Skydive in a semi-circle, mirroring the other group. Both were perfectly competent flyers, the only issue was Fireflight's tendency to get easily distracted… either by shiny things, birds, or Bumblebee himself.

Skydive was good at gently pulling the red jet's focus back on the task at hand, so they had been an easy choice to pair up. He'd left Air Raid and Slingshot to Silverbolt because he felt they'd listen to their own Leader more than him. Silverbolt was perfectly capable of bringing the two rowdy brothers back into line when they started loosing focus or bickering.

"OK, bank in, and keep note of your chronometers!"

The two groups began converging on the ground targets set up. A group of giant, purple, flour-filled balloons littered the desert floor, and as they approached, Bumblebee yelled "Fire!"

To any mech on the ground (and there was in fact a small audience), it would appear as if the two groups of jets were about to collide. However, as they smattered the ground with low-set laser fire, they criss-crossed through one another, carefully timing the starting and stopping of their shots as they crossed paths in the gaps.

The whole thing was over in a matter of astroseconds, and the ground where their crosshatch of laser-fire had landed was now mostly covered in white maize and bits of balloon.

A few of the mechs sitting atop the exposed aft of the Ark whooped and cheered at the successful exercise.

Bumblebee banked sharply right and met up with Silverbolt, the group settling into a standard formation again as they returned to their circling.

"Excellent work! Timing was spot on guys, just need a bit more practice with aim, but apart from that, I have a feeling the 'Cons will be lubricating themselves when we turn that one on them."

Fireflight giggled and Air Raid snickered at the comment.

"So, what's next?" Silverbolt asked, sounding elated. Despite having been dominated by the smaller flier, he had been completely agreeable the whole time they had been in the air. Bumblebee was sure this was as much the fact he was a rather gentle natured mech as it was because he'd kept everything at a fairly low altitude so far.

He hadn't forgotten the Aerialbot leader's fear of heights however, far from it… he planned to tackle the issue, the same way they used to with sparklings in Vos.

Bumblebee had been telling Prowl and Jazz only that night about his past life, when he had been pure Seeker.

His first job had in fact been, not a courier mech, but a flight instructor for younglings. Himself not that old when he'd taken up the post, he'd been offered it both because of his kind nature and his exceptional flying abilities. He was also the closest thing to the younger fliers sizes, and they had all loved him as an instructor.

Bumblebee had to admit to Ratchet before their training exercise (and the medic had already known about his former occupation), that he was actually nervous about teaching adult jets.

At which point the medic had reminded him that they were fresh-sparked, even if they were in adult frames and running on mostly adult programming. All he had to do was tap into their sparkling nature, of which there was apparently plenty.

And of course, once he was in the air, Bumblebee had felt right at home, and it had all come back so easily it was as if he'd never reformatted.

"Time for some one-on-one training. First up is you Silverbolt, the rest of you can take a break, but don't go too far, you'll all be getting a turn."

The others whooped and chased each other's thrusters, barrel rolling over themselves as they raced to the Ark to sit with their audience and preen a little.

"Alright Silverbolt, you ready?"

"Sure thing. What are we going to be doing?" The concord's voice was chirpy and elated. Bumblebee almost hated to say his next words so happily.

"We're going to be dispelling your fear of heights."

It was in fact amazing to see the rest of the Aerialbots lurch in their flight pattern at the same time their leader did. Gestalts were certainly a slight learning curve for the triple changer.

His comm. was suddenly assaulted, even as Silverbolt remained silent, and apparently, shell-shocked.

**Are you serious? You can do that?**

**No way! He****'****s never going to get over that****…**

**Good luck, like we haven****'****t tried!**

**Aaaaw, Bolty gets a joy flight and we can****'****t come?**

**HEY! You guys, not helping. You might have tried, but you were never properly trained in the first place. You were sparked from aircraft made into jets, but you weren****'****t raised by jets. There****'****s a big difference, and it****'****s a shame you had to come online under the circumstances you did, but have a little faith, OK?**

Bumblebee managed to silence the chattering in his comm. And focused back on Silverbolt.

"Bee, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean… I don't think I can do it, I really don't, you said it yourself, we weren't raised as pure jets-"

"Ah, not raised as, but you WERE sparked jets. This handicap has been holding you back long enough Silverbolt. Don't worry, you know your brothers will catch you if you stall. But you don't need them to. You've got WINGS. You can catch yourself! The atmosphere of earth is thicker than the one on Cybertron, It's actually even better for high altitude flying. Now come on. You're going to concentrate on my tail fins, you're going to follow me WHEREVER I go and however HIGH I go, clear?"

There was a warble of fear, but it was acknowledgement none-the-less.

"Alright then, lets GO!"

Bumblebee shot off so fast, it made Silverbolt sputter and flounder to catch up. He had to concentrate so hard on just keeping up and keeping the mini-seeker's thrusters in his cross-hairs that he didn't really think about altitude… for the moment.

Bumblebee smiled to himself and banked sharply left, heading for a shallow dive. Silverbolt followed a little clumsily, and the triple changer let him catch up before he zipped up and right, arching around lazily as the Concorde got better at following.

He began making the moves more complex, keeping it at a medium altitude, rolling, plunging and looping. The silver carrier craft gunned his powerful engines, his ability to keep up and copy improving the more they flew. Bumblebee could almost feel the pure enjoyment coming off Silverbolt. He didn't often take joy flights quite like this due to his size and fears.

Once the mini-jet was sure he had the silver plane distracted enough he shot upwards in a wide spiral.

Silverbolt followed without hesitation, just waiting for him to make another tricky manoeuvre to be copied.

Bumblebee didn't make any moves to change his flight pattern…

And just when Silverbolt was getting a little impatient for the game to get exciting again, he found himself surrounded by something cold and white. It made it difficult to fly, so he gunned his engines, following what he could see of Bumblebee's thrusters a little closer until they cleared the turbulent patch.

When they emerged, the sunlight seemed… brighter. Silverbolt dialled down his sensors a little, still following Bumblebee as he rolled lazily.

It wasn't until they levelled out and slowed that the Concorde took stock of his surroundings.

"Uuuuh… Bee, where are we?"

"You can glide can't you silver bolt?" the seeker replied in a curious, serene tone.

"Ummm… yes… what-"

"Cut your engines for a klik and glide with me."

Silverbolt sputtered out a burst of static, before listening to realise the jet had already offlined his thrusters and was riding the thermal they had been following.

"Are you sure…"

"C'mon, just try it. Your wings are still there, if you loose too much altitude just give yourself a boost. Trust me."

The calm eagerness in the smaller mechs voice hit Silverbolt's nerves the same way the wheedling of his brothers usually did, and he couldn't say no.

With a deep intake, he did as instructed and glided alongside the other bot, the air silent but for the slight woosh of air passing over their wings and fuselages.

"Hear that?"

"What?" Silverbolt asked a little nervously, straining his audios… but his fear was eased when Bumblebee laughed.

"Nothing. Silence. It's the quietest place you'll ever find."

"You still haven't told me where we are." Silverbolt groused half-sparkedly.

Bumblebee twiddled his Ailerons to wobble himself from side to side a bit in a mirthful gesture.

"We're above the first layer of clouds. I wanted to show you how beautiful it is up here. I thought it might be an incentive for you to get over that fear of yours.

Silverbolt made a slight whine and turned his engines back on, but when the triple changer said nothing and did not say he could go back down below the clouds, he slowly tried to calm himself.

Bumblebee was dominant. He was his superior in the air, and as such, he would follow the jet's commands.

When the silver concord cut his engines again and settled into a nervous glide beside him again, Bumblebee smiled to himself.

"See? You're doing fine. Your wings are still working, and now you know where to go if you ever feel you need some space and silence. I can imagine that's not easy for you to come by."

Silverbolt let out a nervous chuckle. "Heh… yeah. I love my brothers but… they can get to be a bit much, sometimes."

"OK, well, you seem to have a good handle on your surrounding now, so we're going to do some anti-stall manoeuvres. If you know how to catch yourself, you needn't fear falling."

Bumblebee said serenely, doing another lazy upside-down loop to come level on Silverbolt's other side.

The concord made another whine of fear.

"B-But what if… I mean, I'm not as afraid of not being able to catch myself as… I mean… what if a Decepticon messes up my wings? What if they crash into me? I don't… how did you even _survive _that crash? It was one of the most frightening, horrible things I think I've ever seen!"

The mini-jet had to admit the sudden topic change to his own dog-fight with Sunstorm and subsequent Kamikaze like crash was unexpected. His turbines buzzed slightly. "I… my plating is pretty tough. Yours isn't bad, but mine was a specially designed alloy. I only survived because I changed to root mode before I crashed. If you can help it, DON'T crash in your alt. mode."

"Aren't you afraid of crashing again?" Silverbolt's distress seemed to be going up again, but Bumblebee tilted his wings side to side in the seeker equivalent of a shrug.

"Why should I be? I crashed deliberately. Well, I crashed into him deliberately anyway, I knew I wasn't going to be able to fly after, but I wasn't really thinking about that. 'Bolt, if you spend every moment in the air worrying you'll fall out of it, you might as well give up your wings to save yourself the stress. You need to let it go… don't focus on what MIGHT happen, focus on what you're doing. And hey… you're built more like Skyfire, and look at all the punishment he's taken! And he's survived.

Look, 'Bolt… I know you're afraid because you don't want to hurt your brothers. I know I'm not bonded… and I've never had a trine, but I get it, I do. I know what they'd be like if they lost you."

Silverbolt, who's engines were back on, quivered and dropped a few feet, skimming the tops of the taller cloud formations, but he seemed to be listening and taking in what the mini seeker was saying.

"But they'll be a lot happier if you didn't hold back. You Don't NEED to hold back. I'm pretty sure the only reason you do is dormant code from your previous incarnation as a cargo shuttle… those things HAD to fly low, they weren't allowed to go into the higher lanes because they weren't fast enough, but that's definitely not a problem now! So… ready to give these manoeuvres a shot?"

The concord slowly drifted back up level with Bumblebee, and after a moment, he boosted his engines a little in a show of confidence.

"Alright… let's do this. I'm sick of being afraid. I don't want to hold them back any more."

Bumblebee smiled internally.

He still had that flier pep-talk gift, that was for sure.

* * *

Prowl woke first with a start, Jazz not far behind as Bumblebee thrashed at thin air, screaming, engines whining with his terror.

"Bee, wake up mech! It's just another bad purge-" Jazz deflected the blow of a flailing arm, catching the smaller mechs wrist and bringing the fisted servo to his mouth, kissing it.

Prowl clutched a wing to him and revved his engine, murmuring his own reassurances as his other servo sought out a horn and rubbed at it soothingly.

Bumblebee jerked in their hold a few times before he gasped, optics onlining with a start.

He remained tensed against them, form shaking slightly before he groaned and quivered, relaxing into their soothing holds and touches. He whimpered slightly as the echoes of his purge flashed across his meta.

"Sunstorm again?" Prowl asked quietly. Bumblebee just gave a small nod and wriggled deeper into their hold, turbine still whining faintly with unreleased stress.

"Hasn't Ratchet been able to recommend something to help stop the defrags?" Prowl's voice was soft and soothing, but Bumblebee could detect the note of sadness and pity in his tone.

He shook his helm a little, not wanting to dislodge the digits sending calming pulses of sensation from the touch on his horn.

"He said it was something I'd have to heal the old fashioned way. He did admit… there aren't really any psychology qualified mechs on board that could truly help me with it like he wanted. Hoist and Smokescreen just can't… understand enough. Seeker society has completely different protocols… and all this started back then…" The mini jet took in a long shuddering ventilation, voice getting quieter as his optics dimmed.

"It's… it runs… deeper, than just… what happened in the battle… it's everything I… it isn't possible to understand what a seeker goes through, losing their wings, unless you are one. Smokescreen and Hoist just couldn't help me with that… I'm not sure there's any bot who can."

It was a testament to his origins that Bumblebee couldn't even bring himself to swallow his pride and admit how very badly the whole reformat had scarred him… he had denied it himself, out of necessity to live a normal life, or as normal as possible. Now that the truth was out and he was free to take his wings back… there was the problem of all the old wounds that had never actually healed, and it was so ingrained in him to ignore them that that was all he could do. But there was no way to hide how it was taking it's toll.

Jazz snaked an arm around the triple-changer's waist under his wing and traced the edge of his windscreen, eliciting a soft purr from the small mech's engine as the whine of his turbine subsided.

He and Prowl kissed at the yellow and black plating, and the saboteur hummed. He'd always read Bumblebee's expressions better than anyone else. It was his job after all, but being that the mech was assigned to his team in the first place, he'd been especially tuned in to both Bumblebee and Mirage, and could generally tell when they held back on anything. He didn't press though… he was tactful enough to recognise when the minibot wasn't ready to talk about the root of his problems, and he usually got there eventually.

Jazz hummed, tapping lightly on the windscreen glass under his digits. "Well… ah know he ain't a psychological expert, but what about Skyfire? He knows what seekers are about… and his body n' spark have taken quite a beating over time, maybe you should both try ta help each other. If nothing' else, ya can reminisce about the good ol' days in Vos, hmm?"

The flicker of a smile pulled at Bumblebee's mouth. The vibration of Jazz's voice and engine against his wing had yet more of a calming effect, and he practically melted into his lovers touches as he listened.

"Mmmm… guess that's not a bad idea. He did come and talk to me, after that thing with Cliff in the rec. room. I don't… know, that he'd want to talk about his problems, though… I'm not even sure how to approach him to suggest the kinda thing you're talking about."

"I'll talk to him. I'll put it to him logically, we've always had a good mutual understanding of sensibility, and he knows if I'm asking him about something like this that it's a serious issue. I'm sure, if you don't mind me telling him about your defrag problems, that he'd be willing to try and help. And asking isn't going to hurt."

As usual, Prowl's infallible processing managed to help put Bumblebee's mind at some ease and he purred his engine softly in agreement. "OK… that sounds like a good idea… thankyou, both of you…"

The mini-seeker carefully moved, turning himself over to face them, words seeming inadequate to show his gratitude… his spark deep affection and desperate love for the two mechs.

Somewhere between nuzzling and kissing them to show his thanks, their touches became heated, and Bumblebee pressed further into them, practically humming with the need to show them all his love and passion for them.

They welcomed his heated kisses and nips, his delving servos and skilled touches, and they wrapped themselves around him like a protective shield even as Bumblebee teased open their panels and coaxed their spikes to pressurise. He wriggled himself between them as they moved to kneel on the berth, lifting the triple changer between them as he begged for them both to take him together.

They could hardly refuse with his wings quivering with lust and his mewls so desperate and needy.

Jazz and Prowl groaned as they entered Bumblebee together, his valve clenching hard around them, quivering as the jet mewled and writhed between them.

Their lips and servos worshipped his plating as he spoke soft litanies of love to the two black and whites, hips moving to encourage them as they moved in counterpoint within him.

The overload came fast and hard, without any of them even plugging into one another to share their charges. Bumblebee gasped and quailed between the two pressing bodies, the perfect ecstasy brought on as much by their physical efforts as the knowledge of their emotional support.

There was no doubt, at that moment, in Bumblebees mind, that he needed to go through with the plan he had thought out on the mountainside… that he would make the mechs laying now with him, slipping from inside him and nuzzling his wings, his trine mates.

Their lack of wings be damned, he wanted, more than anything, to give his spark to them.

* * *

The sound of clanging metal and revving turbines was not a combination usually heard in the training room.

So it was no real surprise that there was something of a crowd when the twins walked in, thinking they'd get a bit of sparring in before patrol.

Looking curiously over the helms of the few other mechs gathered around the raised training ring, their optics widened at what was apparently the main attraction.

Bumblebee was in the ring with Jazz, and they were fighting at a more than leisurely pace, the saboteur grinning wickedly and the mini-seeker letting out small growls and hisses as they parried blows.

Not that they hadn't seen Bumblebee sparring before.

It was part of special ops training, and practice was always essential, but this time… Bumblebee had to compensate for his extra kibble, something he'd not done before.

Jazz tapped a wing in simulation of what would have been a serious blow, and Bumblebee recoiled with a hiss.

Prowl, whom they had not noticed standing inside the ring and leaning against one of the corner posts, stepped forward suddenly.

The fighting stopped and Jazz wordlessly sauntered over to switch places with the tactician.

Prowl fell into a light defensive stance in front of Bumblebee, who mirrored him attentively.

"You keep arching them back, but when you first go into a fight, the best thing to do is keep them flared. The more contact they have with your arms, the easier it is for you to tell where they are. Try not to arch them back as you fight, move your body out of the way rather than just the wing."

Bumblebee gave a short nod, and then they burst into action.

Watching Bumblebee and Jazz spar was one thing.

Jazz had trained the beetle, and they knew each others moves too well.

But Bumblebee and Prowl were new to each other as fighters.

And Prowl was hardly ever seen practicing servo-to-servo.

The sight to the Lamborghinis was quite astounding.

Prowl moved faster than most would assume, and with a grace that rivalled Jazz's own fluidity.

Bumblebee was quick, he'd always been something of a whiplash fighter, darting in to deliver a fast hard blow before retreating. But Prowl was too good at avoiding his punches, and whenever the seeker would dart in, usually with the aid of his thrusters for a boost, the tactician would dodge and use Bumblebee's attack to land his own blows.

He was letting his opponent come to him, and Bumblebee was hissing and growling as more hard taps were reigned down upon his wings and tailfin.

To the spy's credit, he was doing his best to keep his wings forward, and started to adapt to Prowl's style quickly.

He dodged more and more blows, and Prowl praised him, giving short, sharp instructions about evasion and not moving too stiffly.

Bumblebee feigned an attack and Prowl shifted to avoid it, moving the weight on his pedes. Bumblebee suddenly dropped and swung out a leg at close range, catching Prowl off guard and sending him sprawling on his back.

Bumblebee jumped on the tactician and pinned him, grinning and flaring his wings back out of the datsun's reach.

Prowl was also smiling, more than most mechs usually got to see, and it was clear the two sparring partners didn't give much care to their audience.

"Good work. It took Jazz 3 sessions to be able to beat me when we first began sparring."

"Yea, well he wasn't intimately aware of your weak spots at that stage, was he?"

Prowl's optics narrowed and he smirked.

"Admitting to cheating then?"

Bumblebee snorted. "Not unless your pedes have become an erogenous zone now. I could always claim you right here and test the theory out, you know what exhibitionists us fliers are."

Prowl's smirk didn't falter, but his optics flashed in alarm.

Jazz laughed and broke the tension in the room as the rest of the crowd realised they were actually hearing such things from the minibot in public.

"Alright you two, ya know ya ain't startin' anything' without me. That was only one victory flybot, he got a lot a hits on your wings before you got there. That's probably enough for today though, don't wanna hog the trainin' room."

Bumblebee reluctantly bounced back onto his pedes, Prowl rolling onto his own smoothly and standing as was his usual, at attention.

He raised an optic ridge coolly at the mechs gathered around them.

"Haven't you all got schedules to be keeping?"

"How about testing yourself against the masters of Jet Judo?"

Sunstreaker piped up, slipping through the crowd as they dispersed, stopping most of them dead.

Bumblebee's optics landed on the frontliners and flashed, his expression surprised. His turbine revved eagerly at the challenge.

"I'm not sure now is the time, Sunstreaker." Prowl said coolly, but the minibot seemed to have already taken to the idea and his wings twitched. "Why not? They're probably the best opponents to test myself against. The harder the level I start at, the quicker I'll be back on form. Besides…"

It was Bumblebee's turn to smirk as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe slipped into the ring, Jazz ushering Prowl to move outside it and off the dias with an amused look.

"- I have to perfect my Lambo-judo."

Sideswipe actually snorted at this as he and his brother stood themselves in two corners on one side of the ring, taking up loose fighting stances.

"Gonna have to work on that title Bee. Lacks a certain creativity and originality."

"Oh, I don't think you'll care much about the name once I whip your afts with it." The minibot teased in pleasant voice.

Without warning, their match began, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe launching forwards in perfect synchronisation, one aiming high, the other low.

Bumblebee waited before springing to the side and doing a sort of cartwheel that took him out of the reach of both mech's grasping servos.

Without missing a beat, Sideswipe, who had aimed low, dropped and rolled, kicking out for the triple changer's midriff. Bumblebee caught the pede and kicked off with his thrusters, pulling Sideswipes leg up and over his own body. This brought him flying forward into Sunstreaker's path, and the golden twin had a fist waiting for him.

Bumblebee twisted his whole body to the side and released Sideswipe's leg before he dragged the red mech's hips over his helm. He used his side twist to his advantage, flaring his wings to manoeuvre his weight, bringing a pede around to kick under Sunstreaker's outstretched arm.

The golden twin rolled back out of range of the kick.

Bumblebee felt a tug on one of his wings and gasped as he was yanked down sideways by Sideswipe.

He thrust his arms and legs out in front of him and landed beside the red mech, letting out a feral growl from his engine as his wing jerked to try and release the grip, but Sideswipe was having none of it and smirked at him.

Sunstreaker used his brother's immobilisation of the minibot to grasp at the other wing.

Bumblebee glared, putting his weight on his arms and getting his legs beneath him, kicking Sideswipe in a side-seam that he knew was rather sensitive. The red mech yelped and released his wing.

Sunstreaker moved around behind the seeker, still gripping his wing, and forced Bumblebee onto his back.

Bumblebee hissed, landing awkwardly with his tailfin in the way as it was. He swung a leg up towards the golden twin, using his flexibility to his advantage and igniting a thruster. It was close enough to Sunstreaker's plating that he too released his grip on the wing, preferring to save his paintwork.

Bumblebee rolled to his pedes. He wasn't really thinking very clearly, but he didn't notice. His frame was hotter than it should be, and he felt as if he was running on high grade.

Sideswipe came at him low again, but with a surprising burst of speed Bumblebee leapt up, landing himself heavily on Sideswipe as he passed beneath him, a loud 'Oof!' coming from the red mech.

Sunstreaker came at him the next instant, and Bumblebee, running on instinctive reflexes, darted sideways and kicked low at his pedes.

Sunstreaker's momentum was such that he couldn't dodge, and with a strangled yelp, he landed heavily on Sideswipe. Both swore loudly, and Bumblebee, not missing a beat, jumped on top of them with enough force to sound out a clang that made their audience wince.

His servos darted out, one catching a black and gold helm fin, the other a black horn, and he gripped them with nearly enough force to crumple plating.

Sideswipe yelped and Sunstreaker growled, but Bumblebee let out a feral thrum from his own turbines and vocaliser, wings flaring.

The red twin squirmed, trapped as he was, trying to get leverage to topple both his brother and the mini-seeker off him.

Sunstreaker however, clawed at the servo over his helm crest.

"Fraggit Bee let that go! I didn't rip your slagging wing up did I- ow! SLAGGIT LEMMEGO!"

Sideswipe actually whimpered and went limp as the grip on his horn dug into the plating and crushed sensors.

Sunstreaker only growled louder and let out an unbroken string of curses as his helm was twisted to the side at an odd angle and tiny digits dug into golden vent slats.

"_Yield!__"_

The low, hissed words were so very unlike Bumblebee that Sunstreaker actually shut-up when he heard it, wondering if it really was the minibot who had said it.

He tried to remove the digits again and Bumblebee gave his helm a sharp shake.

"ACK, WILL YOU-"

"_YIELD!__"_

This time, the voice was something between a hiss and a growl, and it was… actually _scary, _coming from Bumblebee.

He clutched the helm fin tighter and pierced into sensors, making Sunstreaker's helm explode with spots of pain.

"Ah! Ngh… fine! Primus, you beat us, now get the slag off-"

To Sunstreaker's annoyance and slight worry, Bumblebee merely growled, but did not release him. He daren't try and throw the mech. He doubted, in this odd state, that Bumblebee would let go of his helm fin at all, and if he yanked it hard enough Sunstreaker could black out momentarily from the pain of the sensors.

"Sunstreaker! Either act submissive or say you yield!"

The golden twin strained his optics to see who outside the ring was talking to him.

Even without seeing Powerglide standing somewhere at the back of the crowd, he could tell the flier from his voice.

"Why?" he growled, before letting out a soft sound of pain as his helm was dragged into an even more awkward position.

"Because he's regressed into heat mode and he's dominating you! His programming won't let him release you until you yield appropriately."

This information was drawled so matter-of-factly that it caused him to slacken his resistance in shock.

"Heat? What? Ah-OW, OK OK SLAGGIT I YIELD!"

Sunstreaker said it as plaintively as he could, and immediately his helm fin was released. Sideswipe grunted softly as Sunstreaker's weight slackened onto him, but it was a relief for the pressure on his horn to be gone.

Bumblebee whirred his engine in a final, victorious growl before pushing off Sunstreaker's back. He then sauntered over to the corner of the ring with his wings flared high and proud.

* * *

"Ratchet… we have a problem."

The medic turned at the distressed tone in Bumblebee's voice as the mini-jet strode stiffly towards him.

The red and white mech frowned, not noticing any damage on the triple changer and not picking up more than slightly excess temperature and current-flow rates in a basic scan.

"What's wrong, is there another anti-seeker movement stirring among the rest of the minibots or something? You look like you've been in a fight."

"No, that was just sparring… but that's when it came on… I think… um, I think I'm uh… well, I've come into heat… for some reason."

Ratchet could barely make out the small yellow and black mech's mumbling, but when he did, his optics widened.

"…Oh… well… what symptoms are you displaying exactly?"

Bumblebee rubbed awkwardly at the back of his helm, talking into the floor in embarrassment.

"Well, I was fine when Jazz and Prowl were helping me do melee training to get accustomed to servo-to-servo with my wings and fuselage… and then Sunstreaker and Sideswipe showed up and challenged me to some sparring, and that was fine too. Was kinda fun, at first, and then I… it sorta went blurry, like, I knew what I was doing, but my reasoning protocols completely switched, and I started fighting the way I fought Powerglide for air rank. I uh… not that I remember it properly, but apparently I made Sunstreaker and Sideswipe yield when I floored them. I only kinda came back to reality after I got out of the ring and um… nuzzled Jazz and Prowl and hissed at the nearest mechs. Then I was fine and I didn't know why everyone was staring."

Ratchet heaved a sigh through his vents when Bumblebee finished his explanation, looking pleadingly up at him from under the rim of his helm.

"Well. That sounds like heat protocols. You've experienced heat before yes?"

"Yea, only twice though. Never… had this strong of a reaction before though. Used to be I'd just bunk with whatever jets were interested and go through it with them. But I know what this means, I'm assuming you do to…"

The yellow bot's demeanour became, if possible, even more embarrassed.

"That because we have a Seeker in heat, it will trigger every other flier on base to enter their own, including any helos to some degree. Yes, I know about that." Ratchet scrubbed a servo over his faceplate, leaning on the nearest berth.

"I'm going to have to inform Prime, and there's probably going to have to be a meeting to organise rooms and hangars and claim-ee's schedules to work around this heat."

Ratchet sounded direly resigned, which didn't make Bumblebee feel much better. He knew it wasn't his fault the protocols had kicked in, but it WAS going to be his fault that the base would go nuts with every flying mech fighting for dominance and claims for 10 earth days.

"Ratch, I've never been that… volatile during a heat. Should I be worried that the repression of my seeker coding has corrupted it?"

The medic waved a servo nonchalantly.

"No, no, your coding is pristine, I made sure of that. It's the change of environment and circumstance. You've never had a full heat in the company of grounders while involved in a serious relationship. You never fought amongst seekers much because there was an established order there and circumstances in play that catered to making it easy. I expect it's going to be absolute mayhem here though. Especially with the…"

The CMO stopped mid sentence, optics unfocussed and faceplate slackening in a horrible realisation.

"Ratch, what?-"

"The Aerialbots… Primus almighty, they've never been through a heat before."

The red and white mech buried his face in his servos and groaned.

"Oh… that might be a problem. Do they uh… at least know what one is?….Or more importantly do they know about interfacing?"

Bumblebee asked tentatively, wings wiggling nervously.

"Yes yes, they know what it is but… well, I hadn't felt that their sparks had matured enough yet to unlock their interfacing systems, so they're… all sealed. They've had tactile overloads, but that's all they know. Slag, I guess they're going to have to learn fast-"

Ratchet stopped mid sentence again, but this time his faraway look was thoughtful.

And then his optics alighted on Bumblebee.

"…Whaaaat is that look?" Bumblebee took a step back, wings rising and quivering in a guarded gesture.

A small smile curled at Ratchet's lip-plates and he snapped his digits.

"You and Skyfire."

Bumblebee frowned quizzically, non-plussed, and Ratchet continued enthusiastically.

"You could teach them, show them. You two are the dominants of the base's aerial contingent, it only makes sense. A servos-on lesson in interfacing, it would be much better than giving them the information, unlocking them and letting them at it. I mean between you and Skyfire I'm sure one of you has broken a seal or two, you'd know what you're doing, and you're both trustworthy-"

"Woah-woah, Ratch! You're talking like this is a sure thing here."

Bumblebee's optics were wide and his wings were flared high in alarm.

The CMO however, continued grinning like it was all done and dusted.

"I could just order you both on medical grounds. Anyway, this whole debacle is going to stem from you, it's pretty much your duty. They need to know, and you two are the best options to teach them. And… come ON Bumblebee. You're a Seeker. And this is five virgin jets we're talking about here. FIVE."

He didn't say any of this in a suggestive tone, which only made it weirder. It wasn't every day Bumblebee was ordered in a perfectly professional way to break five mechs seals.

With Skyfire's help, at that.

It wasn't actually the thought of the Aerialbots inexperience that started to sway him though.

It was the realisation that he would be 'demonstrating' with Skyfire.

His turbine started to purr slightly and Ratchet's grin widened.

"I'll get Skyfire down here to discuss the game plan, shall I?"

* * *

"You have to what?"

Bumblebee couldn't help but smirk at Prowl and Jazz's impeccable timing as they mirrored each other's surprise.

"Skyfire and I have to teach the Aerialbots how to interface. And how to deal with their first heat, by extension."

"I thought that was what you said." Jazz mumbled, a sly grin curling his lip-plates. "Soooo how much experience DO you have breaking seals exactly?"

Bumblebee gave them a sheepish grin. "Uhummm… uh, a lot actually."

Prowl's door-wings shot up at this, optics flashing. "I knew you were popular among your circle of Seekers in Vos, but how much is 'a lot'?"

Bumblebee's wings waggled nervously and he avoided their optics, still with that sheepish expression on his face-plate.

"You know how I was a flight instructor for young Seekers? Uh, well… I instructed a few of the older ones when they hit their first heats too. I didn't interface with many of them, just broke the seals and showed them what it was about with some oral. They trusted me, it was expected of youth instructors like me to be able to do that kinda thing in Vos."

Prowl gaped, and Jazz chuckled at him. Both he and the mini-seeker knew Praxus had had a much stricter social order in the old days. Places like Vos and Tarn were seen as downright exotic in comparison to Praxus.

"Well, sounds like ya really are the best bot for the job then." Jazz grinned from audio to audio, brushing his fingers over a black wing, earning a purr from Bumblebee.

"So, uh… have you and Skyfire discussed what your… lesson plan is?" Prowl still sounded awkward, despite the fact he was trying to take it all in stride.

He may have been comfortable with open relationships, but the idea that the Aerialbots would simply have to lose their seals together in such a… wholesale manner just didn't sit well with him.

Bumblebee noticed his disquiet and reached out a servo to pat his arm.

"Don't feel like it's going to be impersonal and horrible for them. It was normal among Seekers to have an older or higher ranking jet break a younger wing's seals. I know it doesn't seem very personal, but Skyfire and I aren't strangers to them. And we won't be un-affectionate, group seal breaking wasn't uncommon either. You have to remember, orgies come naturally to jets."

He said the last part with a cheeky grin, and Prowl couldn't help but smile at that, door-wings fluttering in response.

"Yes, I noticed."

"So when's the deed gettin' done?" Jazz asked cheerily.

"Tomorrow night. We have to prepare the whole Ark for the heat before then, Ratchet and I are pretty sure the whole seal breaking thing will be the tipping point. Beyond that, I'm not going to be thinking with a coherent processor, so you two had better ask me any complex questions you want the answers to now."

They talked into the late night, Bumblebee explaining the sorts of disturbing behaviour they would probably be putting up with from him and the rest of the fliers on base, giving them tips on how to handle it. As well as the do's and don'ts of how to act towards their 'claimer', namely Bumblebee, and other jets.

Prowl and Jazz, after all, were not keen on causing the triple changer to fight with other fliers just because they were talking to other 'claimed' mechs.

* * *

The next cycle rolled around and flew past Bumblebee faster than he would have liked, and before he knew it, Ratchet was kicking him out of the med-bay where they'd been stock piling the necessary provisions for a base full of in heat fliers.

"You and Skyfire are scheduled to meet up at the Aerialbots' hanger in a breem. Processor still straight enough to actually give them the talk first?"

The triple changer's wings quivered and he shot Ratchet a glare.

"I'm not the youngling here, Ratchet."

The medic brandished a wrench at him with a pointed look.

"No, but you are the only flier with pure Seeker coding, despite the fact it's accompanied by your ground form coding, it's still your baseline. Don't forget, I was the most respected grounder medic in Vos once. I know exactly how you lot work, in all senses of the word."

Bumblebee huffed and turned, sauntering out of the medbay and signalling something rather rude in vossian with his wings.

Ratchet simply laughed and returned to inventorying their jet-fuel infused high-grade.

The minibot arrived at about the same time as Skyfire, signalling an unconscious greeting/rank display with his wings.

Skyfire did the same, rumbling softly.  
"Well, I guess there's no point in stalling. Shall we proceed with the winglet deflowering?" The shuttle said in a good approximation of resignation, though his wings told of his excitement and slight amusement.  
Bumblebee grinned. "Lead the way Professor Skyfire."  
The scientist chuckled and shook his helm as he pinged Silverbolt for entry and the doors wooshed open to allow them into the hangar.  
"I don't have any official qualifications in this… unlike you, according to Ratchet."  
Bumblebee buzzed his engine at the jet before going about the business of greeting the Aerialbots.

The young fliers sat in a semi-circle on the floor around Bumblebee and Skyfire, who had perched on the bench in the Aerialbot's common area.  
"So. All of you, whether you realise it or not, have some of my coding. You also have some from Skyfire and Powerglide, because Ratchet had to work with what he had. But basically, this means you all have the same interfacing protocols as Seekers, it's just slightly tempered. This is a good thing, because it means you'll be much less violent and possessive than me… relatively speaking."  
The triple changer explained calmly, wings swaying forward and backward.  
"Uh… so, what's relative for us then?" Silverbolt asked apprehensively, his own wings pinned back in a nervous, slightly anxious manner.  
"Well, baseline for most fliers is wanting to 'claim' a few mates. This is likely to be the two or three mechs you are closest to or feel strongest for outside of your trine or brotherhood.

Normally only one or two of the claims are serious interests, any on top of that are merely 'display' mates, which serve the purpose of being status symbols to other fliers, and generally for interface conquest purposes to prove your abilities."

The Shuttle couldn't suppress a grin at the heat that coloured all of the younger fliers faceplates at this statement, but he continued on as if he hadn't noticed.

"An Aerial mech gains status among other jets and verifies rank by the amount of display mates they collect. Fights break out if two fliers want the same mate, either as a serious claim or a display claim. Fights also break out if other fliers infringe on territory or are in too close a proximity to another's claim.

Some fliers will fight if each others claims actually get too close to one another, but that's more likely to be Bumblebee or I than any of you. Our protocols are stronger, and given we're both currently the highest ranking aerials on base, our programming will push us harder to maintain our status." Skyfire supplied simply.

Air Raid gave them an incredulous look. "So… you're telling us even _Fireflight_ is going to go around 'claiming' mechs and fighting us to defend them?"

"Yep. Ordinary personality has nothing to do with heat coding. Personality sequences are mostly over-ruled when it comes to heat protocols. I mean, I'm not generally a violent mech, but… well, you've seen me when the Seeker coding kicks in. I can be a royal aft, and a fairly vicious one at that." Bumblebee said cheerily, earning a snicker from Slingshot.

"What if we all end up stealing Fireflight's claims from him because he can't fight for slag?"

"Hey!" Fireflight whirred and pouted at his brother, Silverbolt reaching out immediately to pet a wing and soothe him.  
"What if he takes all your claims? He's got the same coding as the rest of you, and remember, personality doesn't count for much during a claim fight." the minibot quipped back, and Slingshot gave him a horrified look.

"That is a valid question though… generally if a flier's claims want to actually be with him specifically, another flier beating him in a fight doesn't necessarily mean they take all the beaten jet's claims. They merely have dominance, and prevent the loser from acquiring display claims on top of what they have. The needs of a claim are important to us, even in heat." Skyfire explained.

"Yes, and on that note, we've set up a system for this. Jets away from their claims don't tend to fight one another. If anything, they're likely to want to frag, simply because jets appeal to jets, and it strengthens wingmate bonds to counter the tension of fighting over mates. So all the high-grade we'll need to take is in the medbay. You can also get mid-grade to take back to the bots you end up stashing in your 'nest', but they can get some from the rec room themselves if they want. The main thing is, Ratchet can catch us in there and make repairs if there's any nasty injuries." The mini-seeker said.

"Woah woah, hold up, did you say _nest?_" Slingshot gave them an incredulous look.

Skyfire rumbled in amusement.

"Yes, there's been plenty of nesting material sourced for the heat cycle as well. Wheeljack, don't ask me how, managed to convince a human bedding factory to supply us with 200 king size mattresses. Apparently they had stock that they couldn't sell. Your coding is going to drive you to build something of a nest, a comfortable spot at the centre of your territory, normally centralised around a berth. Wheeljack has them all in the hangar just over from this one, except for those Bumblebee and I have already taken."

"But… why?" Skydive seemed unable to quite understand the point of such a thing.

Bumblebee shrugged and grinned.

"Mates have to be comfortable while we keep them wrangled in one place for cycles at a time. Besides. Soft surfaces are more comfortable on wings, and kinda kinky, and you're not always guaranteed to be on top with your mates."

"Yea, especially since we don't really know what we're doing." Fireflight huffed, crossing his arms as his winglets fluttered in a manner both older fliers recognised well.

The young mechs heat coding was kicking in.

Skyfire and Bumblebee shared a glance.

"Well, that's what we're also here to show you. I'm pretty sure we've covered all the extraneous stuff now." the shuttle said evenly.

Immediately all the Aerialbots perked up.

"Uh, w-what about how long it lasts?" Silverbolt managed to wrangle out.

"Oh, it'll be anywhere between ten and twelve days." the seeker replied nonchalantly as he got to his pedes on the bench and Skyfire pushed himself back. The had only spoken briefly about the lesson plan at this point, but they both knew what the best position would be for them to show the young fliers how to go about Interfacing.

The five jets sat ramrod straight, optics wide and disbelieving as Bumblebee and Skyfire both opened their panels without batting a shutter.

Normally, the minibot and scientist would themselves be somewhat bashful about bearing themselves to one another, let alone to several others at the same time, but with their heat coding engaging in it's initial stages, social conduct protocols changed drastically, and it came as naturally and normally to them as anything else.

Bumblebee bent down over Skyfire's thigh and looked back at the Aerialbots as he traced a digit around the shuttle's spike housing.

"Right, now you all know what's what, Spike housing, Valve port", he ran a digit briefly around each. "You're all still sealed though, as far as Ratchet knows so-"

"Uuuuh I'm not." Slingshot offered meekly.

Bumblebee canted his helm and waggled his wings to indicate Slingshot explain further.

"Just my Spike… got curious. Really hurt though, so I've never touched it again."

It was the first time Bumblebee ever recalled Slingshot looking embarrassed in any genuine fashion. His wings signalled sympathy and he whirred softly.

"The rest of us never touched ours since he broke that seal. Is it… gonna hurt that much for all of us?" Silverbolt asked anxiously.

Skyfire purred his engine.

"No, no, it shouldn't. It depends on how it's done, it's always better to have an experienced mech help you remove them, or a medic. If you go about it the wrong way, yes it does hurt nastily, but only because the sensors down there are unused to registering sensation." Skyfire explained calmly.

"Exactly. Now, the KEY to seal removal is stimulation beforehand. With the Spike, it's best if the cable pressurises itself and pushes it off. They're designed to peel away like that, doing it with digits is very unpleasant. Valves on the other hand, while they too require stimulation to ease the process, must be removed externally using digits… or, as I found with experience, denta are very useful for the job too. Now, to go about stimulating a Spike into pressurisation, it's quite a simple process. You can either use your servos…"

The minibot used a digit to tease the hub of Skyfire's recessed Spike, and the jet rumbled softly, leaning a little further back and spreading his legs.

It didn't take long with the probing to get the Spike to start straining at it's latches.

" Or, if you feel comfortable with the idea of it, you can also use your mouth and glossa, which tend to get faster results with most mechs. A good trick is to make a seal around the housing with your lip-plates and suck gently while prodding the tip of the spike with your glossa. Be prepared, the Spike may be released right into your mouth, and if you don't want to take it all in, just shut your mouth around the hub only. You can keep licking that and sucking it a bit, or you can try licking down the rest of the spike as it emerges."

Bumblebee then proceeded with a demonstration, Skyfire's helm thunking back as he gave a deep moan.

The triple-changer sucked and probed until there was an audible 'click' and Skyfire's impressively large Spike began to rise from it's housing. Bumblebee wrapped his mouth (somehow) around the large hub and worked it, licking and sucking, before he released it and ran his glossa down the underside of the cord.

Skyfire's cable emerged fully, pressurised to it's peak.

Bumblebee purred, his servo returning to the Spike to stroke it languidly as he looked back to the Aerialbots.

All five of them were staring avidly, and one of them whimpered, though he couldn't tell who.

"Now, knowing when a Spike is ready is easy. It should be firm, and generally only gives a little more length out when you pull on it. But don't yank on it too hard, 'cause that'll hurt. There is a trick to 'rough' interfacing that jets tend to have a knack for, but at first I suggest you go slow so you can gauge your limits and get your sensors used to receiving input. It will be uncomfortable at first, but we'll be helping you with that. Now, Skyfire is going to show you the deal with Valve stimulation…"

Bumblebee moved to straddle the shuttle's large white thigh, wings to the white jet's chestplate, baring his interface equipment to the winglets as he kept one servo on the scientists Spike, stroking languidly.

Skyfire, looking very sanguine and relaxed, slid a servo between Bumblebee's black thighs and teased one large white digit over the Seeker's port.

The minibot mewled and rubbed his pelvis into the contact.

Several jet engines whirred loudly and Bumblebee grinned.

"No-ow… ehum, yes, it helps to t-ease around the entrance first, don't just go right in, you want to instigate lubrication first. That's very important. Some mechs systems aren't great at lubricating a lot in a small amount of time, another thing Ratchet has on servo in the medbay is tubes of lubricant in case you find you or any of your claims have this problem. Now, you ca-an… nnnh… generally tell… a mech is ready for you to press your digits in when l-lubricant drips out… ah, li-ike that… hnnn…"

Bumblebee found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on what he was saying as the large smooth digit rubbed and pressed against the platelets of his port entrance.

When Skyfire finally pushed his index finger into the minibot, several of the aerial bots groaned and their wings all shuddered.

Bumblebee himself arched and moaned, the digit being easily as thick as a standard Spike, stretching him nicely and firing up his sensors.

"Ahhh… y-yes, see… ngh… lu-ubri… lubricant… needs to be spread a-aaaa-around… thrusting gently… does that… oooooh."

The seeker lost himself momentarily to riding the shuttle's white finger, and Skyfire chuckled softly to bring him back to reality.

"nnghu… Ok, that'll do…" Bumblebee murmured a little breathlessly.

Skyfire pulled the digit slowly out as the small black wings quivered against his chassis.

With a smirk, he brought the finger to his mouth and sucked the lubricant off with a rumble.

The Aerialbots moaned and whined softly.

It was clear at least that they were getting extremely aroused… which was of course the point.

"Now… this is the simple yet daunting part for newly unsealed mechs. Spike in Valve. Sounds easy enough, but any size differences aside, even for completely compatible gauges of equipment, there's the issue of angle. The more experienced and practiced you get, the less angle tends to matter, because once your valve is worn in it'll have a nice amount of flexibility. For you guys you'll need to take Spikes slowly for a while, or it'll be quite uncomfortable.

Also… I wouldn't recommend trying a size difference like this until you're muuuch more experienced. For the sake of education, this way just works better."

As Bumblebee talked, he climbed up on Skyfire's white thighs, the huge spike between his legs, back still to the shuttle's cockpit.

He unlatched his own spike and let it pressurise, rubbing it against Skyfires simply for the extra stimulation and to show the young jets more ways of sharing stimulation.

The scientist's servos wrapped around small yellow hips and lifted the minibot slightly, placing his valve right over the hub of his Spike.

Bumblebee arched and let out a high pitched, soft keen as Skyfire helped him sink slowly down onto his large cable.

The seeker worked his valve expertly, relaxing and rotating his hips to spiral his platelets around the girth of the hub.

Several of the young jets gasped, optics fixed on their tutors interface equipment, disbelief, arousal, and slight horror clear on their faceplates as they moaned, whimpered and whirred turbines.

Bumblebee schooled his features as he purred loudly, pausing on the hot, pressing Spike.

"Nnnn… note that the valve is a VERY flexible thing… does have limits, but that's why you don't ta-ake in… anything b-bigger than… the circumference of… y-your port aperture." he explained, before rolling his hips back and forth and sinking down on the spike with a deep moan until it hit his socket.

It was still half exposed, being much too long for the minibot.

Neither Skyfire or Bumblebee seemed to mind as they stilled, vents already whirring from the pleasure of being filled and squeezed respectively.

"It's… always best… if spiking… to g-give your partner… a few moments to adjust… especially with size d-differencessss… nnnngh. _Frag you__'__re tight Bee__…"_

Skyfire couldn't help growling out lustfully, hips quivering as he struggled to keep himself still.

Bumblebee gave a chocked kind of chuckle mixed with a moan.

"Nngh… bet you say that to all the mmminibots… heh… can move if y'want…" The yellow and black spy responded, wings shivering with anticipation.

With a relieved groan, the scientist lifted the small hips and drew Bumblebee off his spike to the hub, before pressing him down again as Bumblebee arched and moaned in a far too enticing manner.

"Primus!" It was Air Raid who gasped out, optics fixed to the sight and wings vibrating so hard with arousal they could be heard clattering.

Skyfire rumbled, one of his large servos moving around to the triple-changer's front.

He took Bumblebee's spike delicately between thumb and forefinger and began to stroke it as he guided the mini seeker's rhythm on his own spike.

There was no more talking, only demonstrating as Bumblebee mewled and moaned, working himself expertly over Skyfire's thick cable while the scientist did some very delicious things with his spike.

It took about three kliks for them both to reach overload, and the room was already heavily scented with ionisation and the smell of lubricant hot with friction.

Skyfire rumbled out a moan like thunder as he pinned Bumblebee to his chassis and thrust up, overloading.

A wash of lubricant and silvery metallic fluid streaked down the exposed portion of his cable and Bumblebee keened, thrashed and overloaded himself, jerking his spike between the two fingers that had been stroking his own cord. More silvery liquid burst from the end of Bumblebee's Spike, shocking the Aerialbots.

"Nnnnnh… haaa…. Now… th-that was an o-overload… 'n that silvery stuff… is called Transfluid. Only jets in heat produce that… it's an aid to… sparking. But… 'less you spark merge… with bonded… when you overload in a bot… won't spark anything." Skyfire explained through heavy ventilations.

Bumblebee moaned softly as he rested against the larger mech, engines purring loudly.

"Yea… also feels awesome… n doesn't taste bad either."

The minibot laughed softly as Skyfire took the servo covered in the seeker's transfluid to his lip-plates and licked it off with a happy hum.

While he was busy with that, Bumblebee worked himself off the large Spike with soft noises of pleasure and waggling wings.

The Aerialbots moaned when the jet's hub made an audible pop upon leaving the minibot's valve.

Bumblebee drew a cube of high-grade from his subspace and drained half of it, before slipping off the berth and looking around at the Aerialbots with a satiated grin. His optics and wings told another story about the state of his renewed arousal however.

"So… Silverbolt, seeing as you're the leader, you should be the first to lose your seals. You can open your panel, don't feel shy."

The concord looked like a deer caught in headlights, staring at the Seeker in a mix between wonder and mortification.

Despite being highly embarrassed, he was compelled to obey the higher ranking aerial, and with a slight whimper, his codpiece retracted.

"Now, just sit back and relax, OK? I'm going to unseal your Spike first, because stimulating a pressurised cable while de-sealing the valve will make that bit much easier for you."

Silverbolt gave a squeaky noise and nodded, optics still wide.  
Skyfire moved off the bench to sit behind the Aerialbot leader, and began to massage and rub the curvy silver wings.

This seemed to relax the mech quite a bit, but he jolted harshly when Bumblebee began running his digits gently around and over the spike seal.

Silverbolt watched in fascination, doing his best not to jerk his hips again as the Seeker gave him a reassuring smile and chirr as he continued his ministrations.

Soon the triple changer had his helm between quivering golden thighs, licking and stroking over the spike housing, purring against it as he tweaked wires in the mech's hip joints.

The hub of the sealed cable was starting to press against the seal from the inside, and Silverbolt moaned, whimpered and keened in both pleasure and discomfort.

Skyfire rumbled soothing words into the smaller flier's audio while his brothers watched avidly, experiencing his sensations through the gestalt bond.

"It's all right, the pressure will ease soon, you're nearly there…" the shuttle crooned, watching Bumblebee work, his own arousal returning.

Unlike the seeker, he had only ever broken two mech's seals, and not his own. The honour of his had gone to one of his mentors at the academy of science, and that had been a very pleasurable affair, but nothing quite as exotic as Bumblebee's technique.

When Bumblebee finally let out a whirr and gave the seal a firm lave of his glossa, Silverbolt gave a loud cry as the hub of his spike popped open the silicon like cover.

The other Aerialbots whirred, gasped, and moaned, watching their leader's cable emerge for the first time.

Bumblebee gave the hub a few licks to stimulate full pressurisation before he wrapped a servo around it and rubbed gently. He moved his mouth's attentions down to the valve, signalling something to Skyfire with his wings as he purred.

The scientist grinned and gently slipped his servos beneath Silverbolt's golden thighs, lifting them up and apart for the minibot.

The concord gasped and keened. The position not only showed off his bared interface array better to his brothers, it also gave the triple changer easier access to his valve.

And apart from that, it felt extremely arousing.

Bumblebee ran his glossa around the rim of the valve, and then right across the seal. He felt out it's edges with digits and hummed, sealing his mouth over it and sucking lightly.

Silverbolt couldn't help bucking and thrashing slightly with a wail. Primus, the stimulation was almost too much! His spike twitched in the Seeker's servo, but Bumblebee seemed completely unfazed by his squirming.

Silverbolt didn't even notice when Bumblebee snagged the edge of the valve seal between his denta and peeled it away.

The sting was nothing compared to the amazing feel of air hitting his lubricant soaked port, and he keened, overloading from the sensations in his interfacing equipment for the first time.  
Bumblebee crooned soothingly in approval, gently stoking the spike as it spurted transfluid across the gestalt leader's chest-plates.

"Holy slag, I call dibs on next de-seal!" Slingshot pronounced, gazing at his leader with an open mouth and wide, dark blue optics.

Skyfire and Bumblebee both chuckled, Silverbolt groaning as his fans whirred loudly, cooling him down.

The Seeker licked whatever transfluid had spilled onto his servo, sharing a look with the shuttle.

Without warning, the minibot pounced Slingshot, who squeaked rather loudly.

"Open." He purr-growled the command, servos landing on the harriers wings and petting in a masterful fashion.

Slingshot whimpered and obeyed immediately, his spike springing free the moment his codpiece was out of the way.

Bumblebee revved his turbines, still hovering dominatingly over the round helmed Aerial, one servo on the wings while his other played with the spike a little.

Slingshot mewled and bucked into the touches, Air Raid snickering and making a jab about how eager and easy he was.

Slingshot prepared a retort, but it died in his vocaliser the moment Bumblebee slid down his chassis and nipped at the base of his cable.

The triple changer wasted no time in teasing his glossa around the edges of the valve seal, servo growing firmer on the twitching spike.

It was only a matter of a klik or two before he had the wingling writhing in overload, at which point he nipped the valve seal off, making sure Slingshot didn't feel an iota of the discomfort of his first seal break.

Silverbolt flopped on his front beside the groaning harrier with a silly grin on his faceplates, and went about petting his wings as Skyfire started teasing a finger over Air Raid's panel.

The black jet whimpered, snicking back his codpiece and grinding insistently into the shuttle's petting digits.

"I suppose I could try your technique Bumblebee… my denta would certainly be more delicate a tool than my servos in this area."

"Mmmm, you're just hungry for more lubricant." The minibot teased, giving Fireflight a wing-rub to ease his apparent tension.

Skydive whined and pawed at Air-Raid, so Skyfire's other servo got to work on the aerial tactician's already open panel.

With encouragement over the gestalt bond, Fireflight retracted his own codpiece, and Bumblebee snaked a servo around his hips to play around his spike housing.

Pressed up against the red jet's fuselage kibble, he revved his engine over the cockpit glass, enjoying the cry of pleasure it garnered.

Much to Bumblebee's surprise, a second rev had Fireflight's Spike break it's seal, and he murmured in congratulatory approval.

Air-Raid huffed, Skyfire's teasing not yet having broken his own seal. He seemed disappointed that Fireflight's had before his.

Bumblebee chuckled, moving around to the red jet's front to lick at his spike, making him squeak and buck.

The Seeker held his hips steady, giving the spike a few more licks over the hub before sealing his mouth around the end and sucking downwards.

Fireflight squealed and writhed, frame and wings shuddering violently.

He didn't even notice one of Bumblebee's servos pinching the edge of his valve seal, and he certainly didn't feel it get stripped off when he overloaded into the triple-changer's swallowing intake.

Fireflight leaned heavily back on his arms, legs akimbo and ventilations working hard.

Over with Skyfire, Air-Raid and Skydive were both moaning at the sight of Bumblebee with his mouth full of their brother's spike.

The scientist had lowered himself to his front, but he still had to hold Skydive's hips up from the floor to reach his valve with his mouth. Both the aerial tactician's and black jet's spikes had broken their seals when Fireflight overloaded, and the shuttle was lapping at Skydive's valve while teasing Air-Raid's pressurised cable.  
Silverbolt, who had recovered relatively well already, shuffled over and began to stroke Skydive's spike experimentally.

The grey jet squealed much like Fireflight had, and Skyfire peeled the valve seal away as he overloaded.

While Silverbolt took Skydive into his lap and inspected the silver fluid on his servos with interest, the scientist turned his full attention on the writhing, moaning Air Raid.

Given he was the last to have his valve seal in tact, Bumblebee came over to help. He and the shuttle got the black jet on his front, Skyfire holding the smaller jet's hips up off the floor, digits teasing the stiff spike while he lapped at the valve seal. Bumblebee gave Air Raid's wings special attention, until with a keen he overloaded hard, and the red and white shuttle peeled off the last seal between his denta.

Fireflight made a chirping sort of noise as he crawled over and flopped beside Bumblebee and Air Raid.

The older fliers let the five rest for a few Kliks, their own heats now providing a consistent level of arousal and sustained warmth internally.

The mini seeker waggled his wings and purred. "Congratulations all of you. You're now fully unsealed and prepared for phase two."

"Ph-phase two?" Skydive questioned in a much higher register than normal.

Skyfire rumbled in amusement.

"We can't just break your seals and let you guess your way through your first interfaces. If you really don't wish to interface with Bumblebee or I, you do not have to. It is an excellent opportunity to get in your first practice however."

The brothers all looked between each other, seemingly debating over the idea.

"None of us mind either of you being our first." Silverbolt pronounced eventually.

Skyfire and Bumblebee smiled reassuringly, and the minibot petted the nearest jet to him, which was Fireflight.

"Want to go first? Your valve seems fairly ready, and I won't go any faster than you want me to."

Fireflight squeaked, looking over his shoulder at the Seeker patting his leg with wide optics, wings fluttering in automatic, heat-induced invitation.

His faceplate however showed he was clearly not sure that he was ready.

"Go on Flight, take it like a mech. He's a _Seeker! _You can't say no" Air Raid prodded.

While Fireflight slowly rolled himself over, Skyfire moved over to Silverbolt.

"While Bumblebee starts on breaking in your brother's valve, would you like me to teach you some Spike technique? That's my main purpose here after all." The scientist purred.

The concord gave him a rather startled, lust filled look.

The shuttle grinned and leant down, pecking Silverbolt on the lips before he lay down carefully on his back, inviting the aerial leader to settle himself between his legs.

One long white arm snaked down to play between the gold thighs, and Silverbolt mewled softly, grinding against the bigger mech.

Skyfire rumbled soothingly, his other servo petting the aerial leader's wings.

"Mmm, your spike is already pressurised, so when you feel ready, you can guide it to my port and test what penetrating feels like, get a feel for the firmness of your own cable. And don't be worried about hurting me, I'm large and experienced enough that you won't really do me any damage or pain."

Silverbolt nodded, biting his bottom lip-plating.

He had to reach down with a servo to find the shuttle's valve opening, and he gingerly guided the hub of his spike to it.

With excruciating slowness, he began to press in, gasping and hissing through his vents as he felt the warm walls of a valve press around his spike for the first time. The slickness and movement was something he'd never even thought about, and the nature of the new sensation was highly erotic to him.

Skyfire murmured encouragements, slowly, and not always voluntarily, rolling the tension cables in his port walls to massage the cable as it eventually came to hilt inside him.

"Ooooh Primus… that… feels so fantastic…"

Skyfire chuckled at Silverbolts breathless moan as he quivered atop the scientist.

"You can move you know… in fact, it's an encouraged practice" the scientist said mildly, teasing.

The concord gave him a huff and a waggle of his wings before he began to move his hips back, pulling out. He didn't take more than half his length out before pressing back into the valve.

Skyfire let him experiment a bit before he stepped in to guide the inexperienced mech.

White servos held silver hips gently, showing him how far to pull out, a good speed to make his thrusts, good angles to remember and the technique for rolling his hips in a way that mutually set off more sensors for both of them.

While Skyfire was busy with Silverbolt, Bumblebee had managed to relax Fireflight, and was showing him the virtues of oral ministrations with his glossa preparing the red jets port.

Once satisfied, through the aerial's squirming and keening, that he was lubricated enough to make things easy, Bumblebee settled himself on the floor, his Spike already pressurised and raring to go.

"Ok Flight, easy… just straddle my legs there… yes, just like that. This way you can control the speed, so you don't need to worry about it hurting, you've got control, alright?"

Bumblebee spoke in soothing tones as Fireflight got into position, guided by small black servos until his valve opening pressed down against the seeker's hub.

"Ok, now, just lower yourself, niiiiice and easy… don't worry, you're not going to hurt me, just don't go too fast or your sensors won't thank you. That's it…"

Fireflight gasped and gave a soft, breathy moan as the tip of the spike popped past the lubricated platelets of his valve entrance and lit up the first sensors in his port walls.

It was slow work for the aerial to sink onto the spike, but once he had Bumblebee hilted in him, he relaxed.  
"Ooooh wow… that didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would!" He chirped, flexing his valve walls involuntarily and squeaking.

Bumblebee chuckled and petted his wings.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself. You're not out of the woods yet, but I'm not especially big, in fact you're a bit bigger… I'm not likely to hurt, but keep taking it slow first, you haven't experienced proper fiction or movement yet. You can move when you're ready, just up and down, as far as you feel you can at first."

Fireflight nodded, making a soft, high pitched sound at the back of his vocaliser before he squeezed Bumblebee's shoulders nervously and started to pull off.

The red jet, as unsure as he seemed, was actually quite the natural, and Bumblebee purred and murmured encouragements as he got into an easy rhythm on his spike.

Their attention was diverted momentarily as Skyfire let out a pleasured rumble, Silverbolt finally finding his confidence with his spike given the shuttle's encouragement.

Slingshot and Skydive were watching avidly as their leader picked up the pace of his rolling thrusts, the scientist pulling his legs up to change the angle subtly before moaning.  
"Yesss… Just like that, Bolt… right… there…"

Silverbolt keened and shuddered as Skyfire manipulated his valve around his spike so deliciously he thought he would just melt into the larger mech.

Somehow, he managed to keep up his own ministrations, going faster, increasing the pleasure, building to what was unmistakeably another overload.

Before he even got there though, Skyfire cried out, hugging him to his chassis, his port walls clenching down so hard he couldn't move his hips, but he no longer needed to.

The moment Silverbolt realised he'd made Skyfire overload first, he went crashing into his own, and he moaned loudly into the shuttle's chassis as he jerked, his transfluid spilling into the quivering, hot valve.

Bumblebee's turbines revved at the sight and sound, and rolled his hips up a little firmer, making Fireflight moan and shudder.

Playing with the bottom edges of Fireflight's wings, he picked up the pace, and the red jet followed eagerly.

It wasn't long, with encouragement from a moaning Air Raid behind him, before Fireflight finally reached his peak and keened loudly, clutching at Bumblebee's shoulders as the seeker jerked up into his clenching valve gently, growling out his own overload in a way that melted the aerial's circuits. Coupled with the feel of the triple-changer's hot transfluid filling him, Fireflight ended up rolling into a secondary overload, mewling as he rolled his hips over the spike, automatically milking it for all it was worth.

Bumblebee moaned, clutching the jet's hips as his overload cycled down and his wings flared in satisfaction.

The afterglow was cut short by AirRaid pawing at his brother.  
"C'moooon my goooo."  
Bumblebee grinned at AirRaid as he helped Fireflight off his spike, the jet understandably reluctant to leave his perch and hissing at his brother.  
Bumblebee gave a warning rumble to prevent any fights before they began. Now was not the time, they would be doing that later.  
Fireflight chirred an apology and crawled over to Slingshot, petting at his wings while they both watched Skydive take his turn learning to spike with Skyfire.  
Bumblebee could tell just from looking at the sheen of lubricant around AirRaids's thighs that he wouldn't need any preparation.  
He had to force the black jet to take it slow when he straddled him.  
It wasn't long before AirRaid was bouncing and moaning on Bumblebee's spike, and the minibot gave the chest vents in front of him a little nipping treatment, recognising the aerial as being the kind who liked a bit of sharp interfacing.

There were just some bots like that, and Bumblebee liked it, because it made his job easy.  
AirRaid turned out to be even more of a natural than Fireflight, without a scrap of trepidation, until of course he snagged his valve lining on Bumblebee's spike hub getting a bit too excited.  
Bumblebee stilled him and petted his wings soothingly.  
"See, that's why you take it slow first. You're too tight, when you clench you risk snagging. That will happen much less the more use your valve gets, but just be careful, OK? Sometimes you can do yourself serious damage snagging, and Ratchet haaates fixing valve linings."  
A cry from the area where the rest of the jets were caught their attention, and both their turbines purred to see Skydive overloading with Skyfire, the aerial tactician doing an impressive job of stimulating the shuttle's spike while he pumped into the valve.

"Heh… 'Dive was always good at multi-tasking." AirRaid snickered, starting up his rhythm again, but slower this time, purring.  
Bumblebee hummed and matched the black jet, licking and nipping the edge of his chest-plates, rolling his hips for maximum stimulation.  
It wasn't long before Air Raid was keening and quivering atop him, before overloading with a spectacular flaring of wings.  
Mirring with pleasured afterglow, Air Raid staggered over to Fireflight, flopping onto his brother and nuzzling him as he squawked in slight protest.  
Slingshot was now busy with Skyfire, so Bumblebee crawled over to Silverbolt, who seemed to have recovered.  
"Oh… um… Bumblebee, is it okay if I… I mean, if he wants to… I was hoping Skyfire could s-spike me?"  
Bumblebee tilted his helm with slight surprise before grinning at the small noise Skyfire made hearing that.  
"That's fine Silverbolt, but are you sure you want to try something that big on your first go? I mean… I could still warm you up, my servo is about at thick as his spike." he snickered slightly, flexing his digits in a suggestive manner.  
Silverbolt flushed with heat at that suggestion.  
"Don't worry Silverbolt… I'll help you prepare. You can get fisted by the minibot another time." The scientist panted back with a smirk at the mini-seeker, who gave a mock rev of indignation and signed something rude with his wings.  
Skyfire merely laughed, then moaned at Slingshot, who'd curled in on himself to suck the tip of the shuttle's spike. Slingshot, after all, did not like being ignored when he was doing something he felt was important. Plus he had to prove he could outdo his brother in the multi-tasking department.

Bumblebee moved over to a very content looking Skydive, massaging his wings as he recuperated his strength. Bumblebee hadn't expected the aerial bots to be able to take more than two overloads in their first session, and a little break wouldn't do him any harm either.  
When Skydive seemed ready to try his first vale interface, he gave Bumblebee a nervous look.  
"I was… um… was wondering if maybe… you could… I mean… I always thought turbo-wolf style would feel good."  
The minibot was surprised by the suggestion, but it made his engine rev eagerly.  
"Of course, if you'd like to try that, that's fine Skydive. You may want to lock your knee joints though, mechs taking that position for their first time tend to loose some motor control… it is very arousing." He purred with a heated grin.  
Skydive nodded, assuming the position and dropping his helm to look down between his own legs curiously, wings fluttering in anticipation.

Bumblebee took up position behind the aerial, bending first to nuzzle and lap at the bared valve.  
He got a squeak in return, and Skydive arched, re-pressurising spike bobbing beneath him,  
In truth he didn't really need any preparation, but the miniseeker liked to sample his partners before mounting when it came to this method.  
When he had his fill and had Skydive keening, he swiftly adopted the dominant position, servos gripping the aerial around the waist where his thumbs could just tease the bottom seam of the wing.

He pulled the hips into position, rubbing the underside of his erect cord against the jet's entrance.  
Skydive, still looking down under his own body, moaned and pressed against Bumblebee needily.  
Slowly, gently, Bumblebee pressed the tip of his spike in, turbines revving at the feel.  
Skydive keened in response, wings flaring and quivering deliciously, and Bumblebee attacked them with his glossa, unable to help himself, as he slowly sank his spike all the way home, Skydive pressing back, eager and tight.

The miniseeker waited for Skydive to adjust, nuzzling his fuselage and turbine, nipping the tailfin before he began to pull out. Skydive had stopped looking beneath him, instead adopting a more natural position, his hips up against Bumblebee's, knees locked, and chassis lowered with his helm resting on trembling arms as he pawed at the floor.  
It was hard for Bumblebee to keep a check on his pace, with the grey jet pressing and bucking into him and his own desire to just pound the clenching wet heat, but he mastered himself, rumbling his engine and moving his hips sensuously.  
"Oh frag, his spike, touch his spike!" AirRaid moaned from the other side of the room, and the spy looked up to see who he was addressing.  
It was surprising to find them all watching him spike the aerial tactician. Even Slingshot, who was still pumping into Skyfire and sucking the tip of his spike, had turned his helm to watch.  
"S-sorry… projecting… can't help… so good… more, _pleeeeeease!" _the grey jet mewled, quivering._  
_Surprised, and feeling a surge of pride, Bumblebee curled around Skydive and took his stiff cable in one servo, pumping down whenever he thrust in, building the pace when he was sure the valve would not snag.  
Skydive wailed, and with a nip to the leading edge of his tailfin from the seeker he overloaded louder than any of them had so far.  
Bumblebee moaned as he went with him, grinding his hips into Skydive's aft as he shot off a hard load of transfluid inside him.  
Ooooh but that had been exceptionally satisfying, and he gently milked the other's spike for every last drop it could produce before he used both servos to soothingly pet black wings.  
He didn't like to be biased, but out of all the Aerialbots, he would be most happy to accept Skydive into his berth again sometime. And probably Fireflight, because there was just something about their timid innocence that turned him the frag on.

He slowly pulled out, moaning in tandem with the aerial tactician at the feel and sound.  
No sooner had Bumblebee plopped on his aft with a satisfied mirring sound than his wings were pleasantly assaulted by servos, and he arched back, looking over his shoulder.  
Air Raid nuzzled his fuselage, admiring his own brother's sated and dripping valve over the seeker's shoulder.  
Skydive twittered as though he was in absolute heaven, unlocking his knees and flopping spread eagle on his front, purring loudly and not giving a damn how many fluids were all over him.  
Bumblebee grinned at the sight of him, ego still very much boosted, and looked back at AirRaid, still plaintively rubbing at his wings.  
"Did you need something 'Raid?" He purred, watching the jet bite his lip in an enticingly nervous manner.  
"I was… wondering if um… maybe I could spike you?"  
It came out in rather a rush, but Bumblebee grinned and purred, leaning his wing into the petting.  
"Certainly. I am going to be a little snug on you, but I don't think you could do me any real damage. I'm used to tight fits." He gave an aroused growl, turning around and pressing a very excited looking Air Raid to sit.  
He straddled the mech's ankles, leaning down to nuzzle and lick at his exposed spike leisurely.  
AirRaid certainly did make very pleasing noises, and Bumblebee took his time preparing him, until a little proto-transfluid seeped from the tip of his hub.  
Bumblebee straightened, shuffling up to straddle his hips, kissing the black jet firmly so he could taste the essence of his own cable.  
Raid whimpered and revved, hips bucking needily beneath the seeker, who chuckled.  
Bumblebee purred deeply, and then decided he wanted to give AirRaid more control on his first spiking.  
He rolled to the side and adjusted his back kibble, leaning back with splayed wings and splayed legs, port soaked and inviting and cable stiff against his midriff plating.  
He could physically see the black jet's arousal skyrocket, and he smirked a little, beckoning him to come closer.

AirRaid was eager and hesitant all at once. After all, Bumblebee was his superior as far as flier protocol went, but he was willingly bottoming, and Raid didn't want to incur punishment for being presumptuous.  
Bumblebee was gentle though, and unconcerned by rank at the moment.  
"Come on, it's ok… just get comfortable, have a go at lining up without touching it… yea, there you go-oooooo yeeeeeesssss…"

AirRaid's confidence soared as he watched the expression on Bumblebee's face. He moaned too as he sank deeper into the unprimusly tight, hot valve. He gasped and stopped once or twice, the seeker's engine rumbling as he let his helm fall back, and on instinct AirRaid lowered his helm and sucked at the spy's neck cables.  
Once he was seated, he could feel Bumblebee's valve sucking at him hungrily… slag almighty it was everything he'd always hoped it would be!

He moaned loudly into the cables in his mouth, biting down slightly as he pulled back.  
Bumblebee could feel the inexperience keenly, but it didn't matter, because the black jet was not getting too bold, and his thick spike did feel _sooo _good on his over-sensitised nodes.  
He wound his legs around AirRaid's waist and tried to guide the rhythm of his thrusts a little by rolling his hips.  
He picked it up quickly, and soon Air Raid found himself whimpering and moaning in ecstasy as he sunk deliciously into the clenching, rippling port again and again. He would _never _get tired of this sensation and he knew it. Primus, what he'd been missing all this time! He knew that technically he couldn't have been doing this any earlier, since he was still young, and knew he wouldn't have had the maturity before to make the right decisions with how and when he did this but… it was certainly pleasing to think he was about to go into his first heat and get lots, lots more of it.

Bumblebee didn't need to encourage AirRaid to speed up at the right time. The bot was good at following his instincts, and he rolled along with the ebb and flow of pleasure, rocking faster, cries getting shorter as the charge built slow and powerful between them.  
Bumblebee massaged the black wings expertly, tweaking ailerons at just the right moments to spike hot waves of bliss right down AirRaid's backstruts, causing him to throw his helm back and keen.

The black jet found himself pounding the noisy wet port hard and fast, reaching for that one last bit of sensation before…  
"AAAAAGHNNNNNNN!"  
AirRaid arched and bucked, releasing his transfluid right into the depths of Bumblebee's clenching port as the sudden, hard bite on his neck-cables sent him reeling into overload.

Bumblebee growled around the lines between his denta, clutching AirRaid as his load filled him nicely, hub pressing insistently and wonderfully into the back of his valve until the overload finally ebbed and they both slumped.  
Their vents panted hot air as metal pinged, slowly cooling, and AirRaid seemed to realise after a few astroseconds that he was leaning his full weight on Bumblebee. He shuffled off, pulling out slowly with a soft moan. Shivering at the pop his spike made leaving the tight valve.  
The seeker purred and snatched the jet back down onto the floor with him for a cuddle, which AirRaid had absolutely no objection to.  
Once Bumblebee started looking around, he realised Slingshot had finished with Skyfire. It must have been quiet, or in tandem with he and Skydive, for him not to have noticed.  
Either way, the harrier seemed to be happily practicing self service with Skydive, encouraged by Skyfire to explore themselves and gauge their own limits.  
He was trying to coax Fireflight to spike him, but the poor red jet didn't seem to take to it naturally. Bumblebee mirred softly.

"Fireflight? Did you want to try with me while Skyfire spikes Silverbolt? That way you can just watch what Skyfire does and copy him, okay?"  
The red and white jet looked between Skyfire, Silverbolt and Bumblebee, wings flickering unsurely.  
"G'wan Flighty, it feels soooooo good… he's so nice and tight and just…oooooh."  
AirRaids moaning purr seemed to be enough to convince his brother, who twittered and shuffled over to Bumblebee.  
The mini-seeker smiled at him, and he and AirRaid gave Fireflight a little wing rub together before Air Raid moved to join Skydive and Slingshot, pouncing both and cheekily playing with their spikes.  
Bumblebee urged Fireflight a little closer to where Silverbolt and Skyfire were caressing each other.  
He didn't say anything, but he knew the look in the shuttles optics.  
There was more than just the heat of this training exercise starting between them.  
He continued to massage the red jet's wings, kissing him gently to relax him, and it worked.  
"Mmmmm you know how my mouth felt around your spike?"  
The red jet nodded, faceplates flushed a dull orange with heat.  
"Weeeell… valves feel teeeen times better… and you don't have to worry at all, okay? I'll help you if you're not sure how to move, it's really easy." He purred, nuzzling the jet, who warbled and nodded.  
Bumblebee lay back the way he had for AirRaid, his helm pointed towards Skyfire so Fireflight could just look up and reference the shuttle's motions if he needed to.  
Bumblebee found when he leant his helm back, he also had a really nicely angled view of the proceedings too.

Skyfire was reclined back against the wall at a sloped angle, one servo around Silverbolts middle, the aerial leader's back to his chest plates.  
Silverbolt clutched Skyfire's arm and moaned breathily as large white digits teased his port, slipping in and out and rubbing around the outer platelets.

Bumblebee looked down his chassis as Fireflight hovered over him unsurely.

He took the jet's half-stiff spike in servo and gently, sensuously teased it to full pressurisation, Fireflight shuddering and mewling above him.  
The spy continued to check where Skyfire was up to, his own valve getting tingly with the prospect of one last spiking.  
Skyfire's cable seemed to be made eager simply from the sounds Silverbolt made and the way he squirmed, and Bumblebee didn't blame him.

"Alright… ready Fireflight? You can take your time… there you go, all lined up… yep, angle is good. Now, all you have to do is push in, nice and easy."  
Fireflight nodded, biting his bottom lip plating as he wiggled his hips slightly, sured the grip of his knees on the floor, and began to sink his cable into Bumblebee.  
The mini-seeker arched his helm back, turbines revving in pleasure as the thick spike pressed in with agonising slowness.  
He could see Skyfire pressing with the same amount of slowness into Silverbolt, and the concord's arching and keening seemed to set off the rest of his gestalt.  
"Oooooh primus…"  
Slingshot's moaned words were merely voicing what every single one of them was feeling in their own way. The three not involved in the spikings petted and groped one another as intense pleasure flooded their bond from Fireflight and, to a greater degree Silverbolt.  
The Aerial leader seemed to lose all pretence of composure and bashfulness as Skyfire slowly and carefully filled and stretched his virgin port.  
The shuttle grunted and moaned.  
"Slaaag… forgot… how t-tight it could… nnnnnnngh"  
Bumblebee mewled and purred, petting Fireflight's wings and nuzzling him encouragingly.  
"You can go faster if you like… you're not going to hurt me, Skyfire just has to be slow since it's Bolt's first time."  
The red jet bit his bottom lip, clearly enjoying the enveloping sensation on his cable but unsure of himself.  
Bumblebee helped by sliding a pede up behind his thighs, stroking it over his aft and applying a light pressure, which seemed to be enough encouragement for the young flier, who twittered and sank home to the hilt with a nice firm push.

Bumblebee let him enjoy the feeling of just being fully sheathed in his port before he gave a few clenches to encourage him to move.  
Fireflight nuzzled into his neck cables with a squeak, pulling back and gasping at the feel of cool air on his lubricant slicked spike when he drew it out again.  
"Mmmm thaaat's it… that's goooood… a little faster, and you'll get a really nice friction feeling." Bumblebee murmured, licking and kissing at the red jet's audio.  
Fireflight shuddered and sank back into his valve rather quickly, keening at the sensation of faster movement.  
It wasn't long before the miniseeker had Fireflight rolling his hips at a good steady pace, the red jet picking up the idea of pulling nearly all the way out before thrusting back in without a problem.  
Bumblebee arched and moaned at the slow, sensual feel of the aerial's thick spike parting his now over-sensitised and rippling valve walls with such gentleness.  
He unshuttered his optics, getting a delicious upside-down view of Skyfire sinking Silverbolt onto his thick spike again, lubricant squeezing out from around the cable and running to pool on the floor.  
The shuttle had also coaxed the Concorde's spike out and was rubbing it between his servo and the aerial commander's own plating.  
Bumblebee moaned deeply at the sight, smell and sound, wrapping himself around Fireflight a little more and kissing him.  
Encouraged, and getting into the feel and the rhythm, Fireflight moved faster, thrusts a little more forceful to try and get right into the back of the tight, clenching valve.  
Ooooh, Bumblebee was so right… it did feel better than a mouth… so much sensation! So much heat! And the way it _moved _when he thrust at different angles…  
"Mmmnnn so good…" Fireflight panted.  
The seeker whirred happily. "Very… you're doing a looooovely job Flighty, going to take me into a long, rolling overload like this." The minibot panted, lapping at Fireflight's neck cables.

The jet watched his gestalt leader with a weak moan, unconsciously making his inward thrusts quicker as his arousal flared.

Bumblebee soon found himself on the knife edge of overload, keening softly with Fireflight, the red flier giving into instincts and flaring his wings, leaning his helm down to nip and lick and suck at a helm horn.  
It was Silverbolt's overload that tipped them though, the Concorde hollering and lighting up the room with tingling volts of electricity that jumped between them all when Skyfire surged deep into his valve and clenched his spike.  
Bumblebee and Fireflight watched with wide optics, the mini-seeker warbling as overload rolled deep and hot through his frame, Fireflight jerking and hitting the back of his valve as he came too.  
Silverbolt looked extremely erotic, draped over Skyfire with the shuttle's spike hilted in him and a deep rumble of interstellar engines undercutting the bolts of light. The concord's silvery transfluid shot hard over his own chassis, adding to the arousing image, and Bumblebee couldn't help but roll into a secondary overload, taking a keening Fireflight with him.  
Primus but he hadn't seen a show like that since his days in the towers of Vos.

They all came down off their highs very slowly and with the loud whirr of many vents.  
Bumblebee purred loudly, snuggling and stroking Fireflight's wings as the aerial remained hilted in him comfortably.  
Skyfire was in a similar position with Silverbolt, all of them marvelling silently at the impressive impromptu display of what a good overload could make the Concorde do.

Eventually, Fireflight warbled and pulled out slowly, mirring and nuzzling him happily.  
Skyfire and Silverbolt also parted, with the shuttle pulling himself carefully from the still snug valve with a loud pop that had them all quivering.  
Without words, riding the atmosphere and afterglow of what had been one pit of an orgy, the jets ignored their happy messes and piled together around the large scientist, who was now flat on his back on the floor with Silverbolt draped over his chest plates.  
Bumblebee found himself pleasantly wedged between Fireflight and Skydive over Skyfire's legs.  
Feeling highly satisfied and satiated, they all succumbed to recharge, leaving the task of refuelling and cleaning for later.

All in all, Bumblebee thought before he slipped into stasis, he was sure the Aerialbots wouldn't regret losing their seals this way in the slightest.  
Unbeknownst to him, the gestalt were all thinking pretty much the same thing.


End file.
